Cash Business In Gulf Makes Compensation Difficult

Looks like the fishing industry in the Gulf is screwed coming and going...


Cash is king in the Gulf fishing industry. And many fishermen and residents say a large, if unquantifiable, amount of the Gulf Coast's economy operates with cash. It's a segment of the economy that, for generations, has been kept in the shadows of the Internal Revenue Service.

That's a sore subject now. Since the oil spill began, many of the fishermen haven't been able to work. And they want to collect payment from the $20 billion compensation fund BP set up.

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"Basically it's a cash business, and they don't keep track of how much they're selling," Lee said. "But the big concern is they don't know how they can come up with the proper documentation to show they have a certain income."

Not paying taxes is, of course, illegal. But St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro says it would be unfair to penalize the fishermen now for past misdeeds.

Taffaro, who was at a recent open house for parish residents in Chalmette, La., would like to see Washington implement a tax amnesty program for oil spill victims who've been operating under the table.

He says it would be an opportunity for people who haven't declared their income to collect payment in exchange for coming clean.

"You get in the game — you get financially compensated for your losses," Taffaro says. "But now you're in the system, and now you're going to have to live by all the tax codes that everyone else lives by."

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