The last I heard, cigarettes in NYC were $7.50 a pack. What person in their right mind is going to pay that!
Posted on 05/29/2005 6:22:32 AM PDT by John W
INDIANAPOLIS – Hundreds of Hoosiers around the state who have been purchasing cheap smokes via the Internet are getting a belated message from the state – a bill for unpaid cigarette taxes.
The Indiana Department of Revenue initiated a quasi-pilot project in April and has sent out 160 bills seeking $54,000 in cigarette taxes.
So far about $3,000 has been paid, according to Department of Revenue spokeswoman Cathy Henninger.
“I think because a few states started showing there are tax dollars being lost we decided it warranted us looking into it,” she said.
The department subpoenaed the customer and mailing lists of three major online cigarette vendors and began sending tax bills based on those purchases, which go back to July 2003.
A sample bill given to The Journal Gazette shows one person being charged $233 in cigarette taxes plus penalties and interest. The state’s cigarette tax rate is 55.5 cents per pack and the bill equates to about 420 packs.
“They’re out to get everything they can get,” said 67-year-old Darryll Monroe, a Fort Wayne business owner who bought cigarettes online four or five times but stopped months ago because he disliked the time it took to deliver the product – sometimes three or more weeks.
Monroe didn’t appear concerned about the new state strategy.
“If they come after me, I might care,” he said.
Henninger said the revenue department’s audit staff is trying to calculate how much tax money the state is losing every year through such transactions but doesn’t yet have an estimate.
In 2004, the state took in more than $338 million in cigarette taxes, down slightly from the year before.
Indiana is joining other states in trying to recoup lost tax dollars after a U.S. Court of Appeals decision cleared the way for such action.
According to Stateline.org – a national public interest Web site – Michigan is leading the effort.
State officials there have sent more than 1,500 bills for both cigarette and sales tax customers avoided through online retailers. So far, the state has garnered more than $2 million.
Other states involved, according to Stateline.org, include:
•Alaska has already collected about $100,000 – about one-fourth of the money owed – after 1,000 letters were sent to cigarette customers.
•Illinois has sent 1,300 letters and expects to collect about $100,000.
•In Connecticut, 141 people recently were mailed tax bills totaling $165,000.
•Pennsylvania revenue officials estimate that the 63 people they notified by mail collectively owe the state $26,000.
•New York City – where smokers pay an extra $3 a pack in taxes – recently billed 2,600 residents and said online cigarette purchases contributed to $75million in revenue loss.
Some states – but not Indiana – ban online cigarette sales. Recently, the nation’s major credit card companies said they would no longer accept payments for tobacco products bought online.
In other areas, members of the public have complained that the cigarette billings might also lead to similar activity to collect basic sales tax on clothing or other items bought via the Internet.
But national law enforcement associations insist that cigarette sales are different, especially because they often violate state age verification laws.
Henninger said so far people in Indiana are paying the bills.
One man called the office this week to complain that he was billed for cigarettes that his brother bought online and sent to his address as a gift. The brother – who lives in Kentucky – had paid that state’s 3-cent cigarette tax, so the Indiana man has to pay the difference between the Kentucky rate and the Indiana rate.
Hoosiers who receive a proposed assessment have 60 days to pay the bill or protest. If they do neither, they then receive a 10-day demand notice. If they again refuse to pay, a tax warrant is filed at the local county clerk’s office.
Those warrants, according to Henninger, can affect credit ratings.
So far, Indiana’s bills have just been for cigarette taxes and not applicable-use or sales taxes.
Henninger said those who buy online should just keep track of their purchases throughout the year and use a special form to declare and pay the taxes with their annual tax returns.
For answers to questions on paying such taxes, call 317-232-3376.
Calls to four major online cigarette vendors – including some Indiana subpoenaed – were not returned.
One of them is www.dirtcheapcig.com – “the last refuge of the persecuted smoker.”
A message on its Web site said it had been forced to terminate all Internet sales and shipping, perhaps because of stepped-up tax enforcement.
Tony Sams of The Journal Gazette contributed to this story.
No proof,no letter is my mantra. Not,of course,that I would ever be in that situation.:>)
Well, what upsets me is that anyone can get porn world wide from the Net, and also alcohol. Nothing is said about that.
But when it comes to cigarettes the lawmakers become obsessed.
That's because most lawmakers are nuts!!!!!!!
The heady days of the bootlegger are not far away if these idiots don't use their heads.In fact I think bootlegging is a big problem in NYC already.
Morons!
The last I heard, cigarettes in NYC were $7.50 a pack. What person in their right mind is going to pay that!
With about $4.50 as tax. Only an idiot would pay that.
Yep.
Only 3 ways to be *legally* served...
and bulk mail ain't one of them!
I sure would hate to have to pay that!
When I started smoking, cigarettes were 37 cents a pack. In the vending machine, I put in 40 cents and got back 3 penny's with the pack of cigarettes.
Look how far the price has gone already! Really ridiculous!
sorry it took me so long to respond - I actually turned the danged thing off and went to the store and then to a garden center I hadn't been to since it reopenned under new ownership. I can not believe that a garden center would actually be closed today - but it was. To heck with them, tomorrow I will go to the one I usually deal with, which is actually closer to me than the one I tried today.
Here it is a holiday weekend and the weather is finally decent enough for home gardeners to start planting things and they aren't open???? That makes absolutely no sense to me, especially when they are right on the main highway and have all kinds of signs about fresh produce in addition to the plants..........NUTS in my mind.
That's my mantra as well - unfortunately it doesn't work with the IRS........but that's a whole 'nother hill of beans discussion.
Norm Kjono has at least one column on FORCES about just that thing. If I remember correctly it is "Butts to Bullets" and gives an excellent explanation about how the legislators in the various states are actually helping to fund the terrorism that is killing our men and women in the Armed Forces. Every time the taxes are cranked up, smokers will find another venue to purchase, and many are actually going to the black market.
Remind your legislators of that. Not only are they not going to see the revenue they anticipate because smokers WILL go elsewhere, by forcing the smokers to go elsewhere they (the legislators) who are supposedly elected to help protect us are actually helping fund thos ethat wish us ill.
The number 1 way of eliminating the black market and thus increasing state revenue is by CUTTING cigarette taxes.
BINGO!!!!!!!!!
It would cost the various states a whole lot less, and they would actually increase their revenue if they cut the cigarette taxes.
Well while you were milling around in the traffic and getting nothing done, I started the bull painting and I am quite pleased with it. Oh course, I could ruin it at any time. LOL
I would assume, it's kinda' like trying to enjoy a refreshing cup of tea in the 18th century.
But there is more to the agenda than just revenue isn't there.
I'm so happy to hear you got some work done on your bull painting - I really hope you take a picture of it when it's complete - I would love to see it.
Of course there is. But I truly like the idea of reminding them that by increasing the cigarette tax they are actually driving people to find other means of purchasing and that is often the blackmarket, a blackmarket that has been shown to be funding terrorist groups - thus, anyone who supports higher cigarette taxes is actually a supporter of terrorists seeking to kill our men and women in uniform, and us.
In other words - they are TRAITORS.
You have spoken well my words Gabz!
You have shown to be more talented in your conveyance than I! ; (
Fly your flag high tomorrow in remembrance of those who have done more to support our freedoms than any one else.
This will be the first Memorial Day for me after the passing of my Father who was a proud member of the "Army Air Corp" during WWII.
Our flag is flying high and proudly my FRiend and I will offer a prayer of thanks for your dad and a request that he continue to look out for the rest of us.
I can not say it any clearer - anyone supporting increases in cigarette taxes is supporting terrorism. Good grief - even the BATF has stated that.
This is an election year in Virginia - but I am holding off going really public with this position until after the June primaries. The Democrat candidate for Governor is not going to appreciate being called a traitor and supporter of terrorists on July 1st when our cigarette tax goes up another 10cents a pack. My local delegate, who happens to be a friend, and our attorney is also not going to like it when I add him into it. Too bad.
My husband orders from Thompson in Tampa - we do not live in a state where they don't deliver!!!!!
But thank you for all the links!
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