Posted on 09/06/2006 10:08:11 AM PDT by SheLion
Robin Brayman, a 44-year-old Greenfield resident, thought she had saved quite a bit of money buying cigarettes online, until she received a bill from the state demanding more than $2,000 in unpaid sales and cigarette taxes.
"I had no idea. When I first started buying, the Web site said the cigarettes were tax-free, duty-free. You assumed you didn't have to pay anything," Brayman said.
Brayman, like many other smokers, purchases cigarettes online because they are offered at a deep discount. A carton of Marlboro Full Flavor 100s costs $29.45 plus shipping from BuyCheapCigarettes.com, the site Brayman patronized. The same carton costs $47.76, tax included, at the Shaw's supermarket on Main Street in Bangor.
But Brayman - and possibly many other Maine residents - did not know she had to declare her out-of-state cigarette purchases to the state and pay Maine's $2 a pack excise tax and 5 percent use, or sales, tax.
Because residents have not been eager to declare, the state has been taking sales and shipment reports from online tobacco companies and using them to bill residents for taxes, interest and penalties for failure to file and-or pay.
Between July 2005 and June 2006, the state sent bills to 2,400 residents, surprising - and angering - recipients such as Brayman.
"I have rent to pay and a teenage daughter. They're picking on smokers. It's unfair," Brayman said.
The state has held Brayman's annual tax and rent refund check and applied the amount to her debt.
The taxes, penalties and interest on online tobacco purchases can add up quickly. Brayman, who says she is on a limited disability income, still smokes at least two packs a day, but no longer buys online. At that rate, her habit costs at least $120 a month in excise tax alone.
But these taxes are not new. When cigarette sales outlets appeared online, state tax collectors invoked the federal 1949 Jenkins Act, which mandates that anyone who sells and ships cigarettes must report to state tax collectors the name and address of resident customers, along with the brand smoked and quantity of cigarettes bought.
Tax collectors from each state then can enforce their cigarette and sales tax laws on the buyers.
Online tobacco shops have been reluctant to report customer information, but at least two states, Virginia and Washington, have prosecuted businesses that have refused to provide customer details.
Some sites, including BuyCheapCigarettes.com, display a disclaimer that they report all sales and shipments to the customer's home state.
From July 2005, when the state began sending the bills, through June 2006, the state collected $554,000 in revenue. By comparison, the state has collected $151.5 million from in-state cigarette excise tax this fiscal year, which dates back to July 2005.
"I've talked with taxpayers that are upset," said Stanley Campbell, deputy director of Maine Revenue Services' compliance division.
"The main thing is the excise tax keeps Maine retailers on a level playing field," said Campbell, referring to the need for Maine tobacco sellers to compete with online outlets.
In Maine, online cigarette shoppers have one month to declare each purchase and pay taxes on it. The payments can be made upfront or residents can set up a payment plan with the state.
Why should I pay for her cigarettes? Will she also want me to pay for a new Cadillac? Perhaps if she got a job and quit smoking she and her daughter could live in comfort.
"Plenty of working people paying their own way who smoke, but let's conflate welfare recipients with smokers, lest some small sympathy for the shakedown victims seep out."
I noticed that right away, too.
It sucked in more than one person on this thread. So, I guess it worked.
They could have used anyone as an interviewee and I'd not feel any sympathy one way or the other.
We all have habits we like to indulge in (notice I did not say vices). We all pay taxes. Nobody likes to pay them. But we do anyone.
And when something gets too expensive, we give it up, or give something else up. It's called making choices with what resources you have available.
Would this story gain any traction if someone were complaining about taxes on booze?
Well...yes, and anything else the taxpayers are stupid enough to foot the bill....
Doesn't matter if it's Cadillac or a wheelchair, it is not government's responsibility to take care of someone from cradle to grave. Personal responsibility, planning, family, charity of others, and draw-down of personal resources (re: the Medicare/Medicaid income divestiture scams many people attempt) should come first before government gets stuck with the bill.
Well, if you live in Maine, you should have been seeing the commercials all year about the Use Tax that Maine has been putting on the TV.
IF we buy ANYTHING off of the Internet or in CATALOGS, we are to pay MAINE the USE TAX for this.
It's a bunch of Bull chit, and they better not try to come after me, that's all I got to say about this deal!
You live in Maine? You haven't seen those ads? They play them a LOT! Makes me want to puke!
Carolyn
When they triple the price of booze with taxes, I support buying that tax free as well.
Out-of-state 'contraband' - bad; Muslim imports - good.
Oh yes! There you go. All those Somali's that were brought to Lewiston by Baldacci and Rep Tom Allen. They can both kiss my arze! We are the most taxed state in the Union and one of the poorest behind Tennessee. So, if Maine is still screaming for more tax money, just where the hell is the tax money they have GOING to?
It's time to clean that house out in Augusta, and I mean it!
Karl Turner that son of a bitch! I hate his guts!
Maine: STATE SEN. KARL TURNER (R-Cumberland)(RINO) to eliminate smoking in TAVERNS, LOUNGES AND POOL HALLS!
<-------- Typical Maine RINO!
Maine: ST.SEN. KARL TURNER (R-Cumberland) to elmininate smoking in TAVERNS, LOUNGES AND POOL HALLS!
Carolyn, doncha know that California and Maine are basta$d cousins? LOL
Don't you roll your own?
Well, the Maine smokers who are lucky enough to live close to the border of NH drive over there to smoke and buy cigarettes. The stink from Maine anti's hasn't rubbed off on NH yet, although the anti's are working real hard!
Where did you read where the rest of us are paying taxes for her? Cigarettes in Maine went through the roof because the damn lawmakers raised the taxes up to $2.00 a PACK. It's the American Way to Shop Cheap. A lot of smokers are going elsewhere to buy cheaper cigarettes and now Maine smokers have to hold their breath because of the under handed dealings of Maine government!
I think it's an outrage!
Plenty of working people paying their own way who smoke, but let's conflate welfare recipients with smokers, lest some small sympathy for the shakedown victims seep out.
You make a good point there, Madame!
I was recently pointed to the Constitution and it is against the law for Maine or any state to "demand" tax money from items bought out of state. I need to find that!
For 4 years now.
Move to NC and work for big tobacco. You get them free.
"Don't you roll your own? For 4 years now."
Careful, them there papers and machines is drug paraphernalia.
Well, they are sold behind the counters in the grocery stores up here AND in our Smoke Shop in town.
FILTERED, too! :)
You're kidding right? I pay $26 a carton here.
About $67/carton in NJ. Wife and I both quit this year completely. I was down to about 5-7 smokes a day, but until she finally decided to stop, I was having trouble finishing it. I did two weeks on the #3(weakest) patch, she went 2 weeks on patch #1, 8 on patch #2 and 2 weeks on patch #3. It's nice to not pay those greedy ass politicians another penny in cig tax.
And yes, the tax was definately part of the equation.
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