Monday, Jan. 30, 1984

Coming Clean

Bay Staters scramble to pay up

The scene was reminiscent of an unemployment office. But the thousands of grim-faced men and women who lined up in the office of the Massachusetts revenue department in downtown Boston last week were there to give money, not take it. Marveled one tax examiner: "It's the first time I've seen taxpayers storming the doors of the revenue department."

With good reason. Last year the state legislature made tax evasion, which had been a misdemeanor, a felony with a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

But it gave delinquents a 90-day grace period, ending last week, to pay their back taxes plus interest. The opportunity persuaded an astounding 130,000 tax dodgers to open their checkbooks, and netted the state approximately $50 million. Exclaimed Revenue Commissioner Ira Jackson: "The amnesty has been extremely successful."

An out-of-state Fortune 500 company coughed up $1 million. Other checks have ranged from 80 to $287,000. In last week's queue: a middle-aged widow who had discovered that her late husband had failed to pay a 1973 state tax bill for $52.70.

With interest, she now owed the state more than $200. The startling results have inspired Native Son Tip O'Neill, Speaker of the House, to call for a congressional study of a federal tax amnesty program.