The state revenooers are welcome to add all the new lines they want onto their tax forms... but I'm not too worried about it. I figure that the only way this will come into play is if one of two situations applies. One is that your state tax return is already being audited or scrutinized for some other reason, and the auditor in question is just out to really mess up your day.
The only other way this would get real teeth is if the fed, probably under some bizarre provision of Patriot 2 or 3, tried to integrate and monitor credit card purchase records, business tax returns, and personal tax returns. All in the name of monitoring the cash flow of American dollars, keeping American business going to American companies, and denying funds to terrorist groups... That would be a massive bureaucratic undertaking that we'd all see coming from a mile off, and it would take years to implement. Should be plenty of time to howl it down...
But then, that's assuming it wasn't slipped thru the books in the same way that Patriot 1 was pushed thru, with Congress critters pressured to vote before they'd had a chance to read it -- or even before full copies were available to be read. That has to be one of the darkest hours of our legislative history.
Sure, I'm paranoid... but that doesn't mean they aren't out to get us in DC. When it comes to instituting further privacy-invasive measures of control, I wouldn't put much past Ashcroft. The man is a snake: all I have to remember is that he once lost an election in Missouri to a dead man.
Regards,
Morgan
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