Fed X is going to give the FEDS a list of ALL their customers as part of their war on terror. Not just on cigarettes but everything.
Many think this is going too far! So it's not just people who order cigarettes online, but everybody!
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.
Fed X is going to give the FEDS a list of ALL their customers as part of their war on terror. Not just on cigarettes but everything.
Many think this is going too far! So it's not just people who order cigarettes online, but everybody!
I would much rather pass a smoker on the highway any day then a drinker!
HOLEY GUACAMOLEY - I had no idea it was that large........
I've got an area about 2,400 square foot already dug up/tilled and plan on doing at least that much more again and that is just for vegetables and herbs. Hubby told me that if I can actually make a go of selling produce and preserves from that this year, he will get one of the local farmers to come in next spring to tear up the entire back acre for me.
You and me both..........and I do both.
Like you, I live out in the country and my choices of travel routes are either the highway, which is a major east coast north/south trucking and tourism route or 2-lane blacktop winding rural roads. The very last thing on earth I want to do is drive either having a few in me, or around others who have a few in them. I am a true believer in designated drivers, or staying at home when consuming adult beverages.
I may have to use a greenhouse. It's REALLY dry in Colorado and these things need humidity. I grow Venus Flytraps and have to keep it at around 60-70%.
The company my husband orders his cigars from has a list of states they will not ship orders to or take orders from - but I have yet to be able to get anyone there to explain to me why or even talk to me about the situation regarding the many credit card companies that will not honor tobacco charges online. And believe me, I have tried and tried danged hard.
The only reason the various states have finally remembered the Jenkins Act is that they have raised their cigarette taxes so astronomically that everyone started looking elsewhere for cheaper smokes.
I believe all lawmakers need to take at least an introductory economics course when it comes to such taxes as those on tobacco products (particularly cigarettes). doubling, tripling and in many cases even more than quadrupling cigarette taxes is no way to generate revenue. In fact it becomes a revenue loser because of expenditures to enforce it and deal with the criminal element of the black markets usoruious taxes create.
I am no math whiz, nor an economist, but I do have enough common sense to see what problems these ridiculous taxes create.
The next time you read of the busting up of a cigarette smuggling operation that has ties to terrorists - remember it is the lawmakers, not the smokers who are actually funding terrorism. And remind your elected representatives of that.
Here in Los Angeles they'll probably just mosey on by and spray the crops as part of their mosquito abatement program.
Then they'll sue you for growing your own claiming you were attempting to evade taxes by not purchasing the cigs in a retail outlet. :^)
Lack of humidity is never a problem for me - in fact my problem is the opposite - far too much humidity.
My problem last year was that the humidity was over 100% nearly all summer - in other words, it never stopped raining.
Ouch, on the arthritis.
Thank you for your good wishes - I need all I can get. I had been thinking about it, and then when hubby was putting new flooring up in the attic he came across old correspondence to the man who built this house from the farmer who was maintaining the land while he was in the service.
One letter is from July of 1945 and it explains how the cucumber crop was so bad that after expenses for seeds and fertilizer the net was $64.64 for 139 bushels.
Finding that reminded me of what we were told by the son (who we boght the house from) had told us about his dad's produce stand that he had here for years. It also gave me the kick in the pants to do something other than sit on my butt most of the time.
So I'm going to give it a try myself, if it works, great, if it doesn't I can go look for a "real" job after school starts up again in September :) But at least I will spend the better part of the summer outside instead of in front a computer screen!
"But national law enforcement associations insist that cigarette sales are different, especially because they often violate state age verification laws."
But wink, wink, we know the online sales of wine will never ever, violate state age verification laws.
What a crock of bravo sierra, isn't it?
While I do not encourage underage smoking or drinking - I would much prefer a teenager smoking a cigarette than getting drunk.
Why aren't they taxing lighters and matches, too, I'd like to know? They're really missing out there!
THE GUBMINT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO QUIT SMOKING.
yes I hear you this danged computer. The hold it has over us is unbelievable. I am painting a portait of one of my husbands young bulls as a birthday gift for him. I need to be working on it now but what am I doing????? I am freeping. LOL
I find all of these efforts hysterical. They will spend more on manpower to collect it than they will collect.
Any smart smoker should tell them that when they do the same thing to Amazon,Dell,E-Bay,and all the other companies then they will pay the back taxes on cigarettes.
I remember when you got it,RF---obviously you are doing well with it.
Good for you!
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