Hammers Disguised as Amnesties: States Take a Wrong Turn

In their zeal for tax revenue, state legislatures have enacted tax amnesty programs with increasing frequency. As a result of the startling successes of many of the programs, which had been touted as "One Chance for a Second Chance,"¹ "first and only,"² or a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,"³ additional opportunities often followed at their heels, dubbed by one state official as "a second once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."⁴ The Director of the Missouri Department of Revenue, in response to the enactment of back-to-back amnesty programs in 2002 and 2003, stated that she hoped that the Missouri Legislature did not "go for a trifecta."⁵

Since the first state tax amnesty program was enacted by Arizona in 1982, through January 2005, 40 states plus the District of Columbia and certain localities have adopted at least one amnesty program.⁶ Most of the states have enacted amnesty programs multiple times, including several which have enacted three or more general amnesties, which are available