Posted on 02/04/2007 4:51:40 PM PST by Malacoda
BRICK, N.J. -- New Jersey residents who buy their cigarettes over the Internet are experiencing a big reason to quit: huge sales tax bills.
The state is cracking down on residents who buy their smokes online in order to avoid state sales tax, a development that has caught many Garden State smokers by surprise.
Brick resident Craig Mathews, 57, quit smoking last April, but not before racking up a $10,426.11 sales tax bill for buying cigarettes over the Web for years.
Another Brick resident, Tim Nolan, 52, received a sales tax bill from the state for $4,115.28 for the Pall Mall cigarettes he purchased online from July 2003 to March 2005.
Both men said they bought the cigarettes over the Internet in order to save money and didn't know that they had to pay sales tax to the state of New Jersey.
"We should have gotten a warning," Nolan told the Asbury Park Press for Sunday's newspapers. "We were ignorant of the law."
A professor at Rutgers School of Law, Mark Weiner, said under a federal law called the Jenkins Act, tobacco companies who sell their products to out-of-state consumers must report sales information to the state where the consumer lives.
According to Tom Vincz, a spokesman for the state Treasury Department, the state collects about $4 million a year from sales tax on out-of-state cigarettes.
Vincz said sometimes cigarette sellers will voluntarily offer the information to states, but often the states must demand it from the Internet sites.
Now, THERE's a phrase you don't see every day!
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
And how does someone sitting outside a retail store know that the person buying the cigarettes isn't going to smoke them all while he's still in North Carolina?
Instead of cutting spending, they were trying to wring every last dime out of a perceived pariah group.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss." -- Robert A. Heinlein
Exactly. Which is why I only have MAYBE one or two drinks a month! Never know when opportunity may strike!
Lightbulbs. If California passes the ban on incandesants, look to see lightbulb sales rocket in Oregon and Nevada...
hy are "Indians" exempt from said taxes today?
Bad treatment they received when "we" got here.
Ummm....ok. That is the textbook answer.. now explain why that is?
Oh hold on now I gotta go back and see what I wrote 1,000 posts ago...
OK. I am ready now. lol. A Freeper asked why the Indians are exempt from taxes. I answered my post in a rather somewhat sarcastic way. I thought after reading many others on this thread that you could have understood that. Some others answered that question too.
First off, the notion that these two were ignorant of the requirement to pay the tobacco tax is belied by the fact that they were purchasing their smokes off the net to speifically avoid paying the high NJ cig tax.
Just think of all the health insurance he could have bought with that much money.
Imagine getting a notice from the state at the end of every month stating the following: During (last months name here) you were clocked by automatic speed sensors in the below listed instances exceeding the limit by the amount listed on each line. Each line indicates the fine for that instance. Please remit the total at the end of this list within 30 days or your licens will be revoked.
At the bottom, your monthly total is $25,750.
At least, mine would be.
When I watch the three latest Star Wars movies and see the "city planet" I always wonder what kind of laws and micromanagement under which people in such a culture and technology would live.
I think people would literally become like cattle - those that didn't off themselves, if the drugs even let them think such an original thought.
I live in the Seattle area. A family sized bottle of Cuervo tequila is $43. In Chicago it is $25. I used to bring a couple of bottles back in my carry on when I went there. Now I have to check it. It's still worth it though...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.