Consulting the Tax Augurs

Curiously reported Associated Press piece on the taxability of Ebay earnings that more or less treats the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as some moody God whose intentions and plans cannot be divined through direct petitioning, but merely through the consultation of varied oracles of possibly dubious provenance. That is, the reporter shows no signs of actually having consulted anyone with the IRS about the question her story mulls over for nearly a thousand words. The clue, though, and probably where the story might have profitably bowed out, is right there at the end of graf two: "IRS instructions make it clear that all income—a category that includes bribes, gambling winnings, kickbacks and money made in illegal activities—can be taxed."