Chicago, Cook County to Pay Cash Bounties for Informants on Business Tax Cheats

Attention all rats in Chicago and Cook County, the city is debuting a "tax whistle-blower" program that could literally pit neighbor against neighbor in the city and county's business community. The geniuses at city hall will pay cash bounties to informants who turn in business tax cheats around the city.

According to media reports, the reward would amount to some a percentage of the tax money that the city recovers.

"It's just another way of bringing people into compliance," Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh told the Sun-Times. How exactly would a resident know that a business isn't paying its taxes? Wouldn't that be more related to a business knowing in some way that a competitor isn't remitting a tax? Or it could be an employee of the tax-dodging business who could possibly have some inkling that this is going on.