Moreover, even if your tax authority wouldn't currently have a way to know-- the penalties for cheating can be very serious so it's in your best interest to comply with your obligations.
This is essentially how all income/gains tax works in the west: Governments have very limited ability to catch people, but they scale the penalties so that the risk from audits and whistle-blowing are enough so that most voluntarily comply. After all, cash is quite anonymous especially for small amounts.
If you're constrained to spend your money only in ways that could never be found in an audit or revealed by a spurned lover, did you ever really have that money in the first place?
These people are dead broke with hundreds of thousands in back taxes. Jail might look like room and board at that point. Given the only use they made of the gains was to purchase something that no longer exists, the risk v reward in their specific instance seems well tilted towards crime.
Moreover, even if your tax authority wouldn't currently have a way to know-- the penalties for cheating can be very serious so it's in your best interest to comply with your obligations.
This is essentially how all income/gains tax works in the west: Governments have very limited ability to catch people, but they scale the penalties so that the risk from audits and whistle-blowing are enough so that most voluntarily comply. After all, cash is quite anonymous especially for small amounts.
If you're constrained to spend your money only in ways that could never be found in an audit or revealed by a spurned lover, did you ever really have that money in the first place?