There might be some confusion about when taxes are due on slaves. Here’s a brief run down:
- Volunteer: No taxes due.
- Conversion by family: No taxes due
- Conversion by Person of Personal Contact: $50 state tax (in Oklahoma, other states varied on tax), no federal tax.
- Conversion by contact violation or clause in employment contract: $50 state tax (in Oklahoma), $250 Federal tax
- Sale from slaver to member of the public: $250 federal tax
- Sale from slaver to slaver: No taxes due. This has the expected side effect of companies that buy many slaves having a slaver’s warrant.
- Sale of legally owned slave to a slaver: No taxes due.
- Transfer from member of the public to other members of the public: $250 federal tax. Because this is in technicality a sale to the slaver and then a sale to a member of the public, it counts as a sale. Legal transfers may only be done by a slaver.
- In the case of an informal transfer, i.e., not done by a slaver, the gaining party has a $500 federal tax liability, plus interest if not paid during the current fiscal year.
- Property tax: Varies state to state, normally 1% of the asset value of the slave, collected annually. Oklahoma has no property tax on slaves.
- The cost of being a slaver has a cost of $5,000 in startup fees and taxes, plus an annual renewal fee and a tax of $1,000.
This somewhat confusing set of taxes is a compromise of the 2016 amendment of the WSA2000 between several anti-slave groups and the American Slaving Association, all of which’s PAC made large “donations” to members of congress. Anti-slave groups wanted a thousand dollars per transaction, regardless of type, with the intent of making women too expensive to convert. The ASA wanted no taxes at all. This new tax code replaced the older federal tax of “%25 of the sale value of the slave or $150.00, which ever was more” for all transactions.
Note: This post is mainly so I can keep track of taxes in stories going forward.