$10,426 Tax Bill For Smoker Who Bought Cigs Over Internet

NBC-10 ^ | February 4, 2007

[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.

[Grizzled Bear]

I'm glad I quit a few years ago. Otherwise I would be forced to mooch off of my friends. ;-)

[Snoopers-868th]

It sounds like it depends on what state you live in. See #51

[RetiredArmy]

Probably. The tribes in WA state don't like the state government because the state is always trying to do things regarding the tribes and money issues. If WA state could tax them, and get some of their gambling $$$, they would be oh so happy indeed. But, they cannot, so they are POed to the max when it comes to the tribes and $$$$.

[Snoopers-868th]

I hear what you are saying but I would be wary. They are not immune to the Jenkins Act as I understand it.

[TheBattman]

The same breed of liberal that scream about privacy (the foundation of Roe vs. Wade), ignore said privacy to collect more taxes...go figure.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[TheBattman]

hy are "Indians" exempt from said taxes today?

[TheBattman]

WHY...ug, time for bed!

[lewislynn]

hy are "Indians" exempt from said taxes today?

Pay back for stealing their land.

[TheBattman]

Then I guess the "African-American" folks have an equally valid claim - after all,their ancestors were captured and forced to the Americas for slave labor...

And let's not even broach the fact that some of the same-said "tribes" willingly SOLD their land. Seller's remorse is a reason for reparations too???

Where do we draw the line? After all, folks can have their property today taken away by edict with less-than-fair value paid - in the "interest of development"....

[OKIEDOC]

Rutgers School of Law, Mark Weiner

REPLY:

Don't you just hate these maggots and Nazi liberal sock to the cigarette smoker.

I do not smoke and personally think it is bad for your health, stinks but damn if I have had a change about all this crap (see Osama Obama quotes for clarification) of political correctness.

I would venture to guess that with all the stress going around in all states that most people will end up locked up either in a mental institution or else in a jail.

Many of the people the laws are designed to punish are the ones who do not vote or else support and enable the Stepford idiots who make these inane laws.

Damn, if you want to know what it is like to live in a Hillary Clinton type of Socialist World then just move to Kalifornia.

[chuckles]

My in laws buy from the Res next to them and just walk in like a 7-11. No ID, no nuttin. No way to trace who bought what. Now the tribe might be liable if they sent a bill to them. Aren't they supposed to COLLECT the tax? If they don't collect it, hows the customer supposed to pay it?

They also sell gas there and I wondered if they had to pay the gas tax. They were usually cheaper than other stations, but not 40 cents cheaper.

[Alberta's Child]

No. The sax they owe will have to be paid -- since these purchases have already been recorded.

[Alberta's Child]

But I wonder how much it costs these states to pursue all these records and then track down the scoflaws . . .

It costs quite a bit. That's why they only pursue cases in which the person owes thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes.

The same rationale applies to toll violators, BTW. Every now and then you'll see a story about someone who is being prosecuted in New Jersey for driving through the EZ-Pass lanes without an EZ-Pass tag, but it always involves a business owner with a fleet of vehicles who has run up at least $10,000 in violations over the years.

[SheLion]

Thanks for the ping Gabz! The putrid lawmakers are deserpate for their blood money and will doing anything to intimidate smokers. Personally, they can kiss my arze!

Can't stand the high taxes?

Afraid to order off of the Internet?

Then start rolling your own!!! I find everything but the machine downtown at the local Smoke Shop.  Also, Rite Aid and grocery stores also sell the bags of tobacco and the filtered tubes.

I roll out a beautiful carton for a little under $8 dollars.  Premiums in my state are now up to $45-$50 a carton.  Can you imagine the money I have saved over the past 4 years since I now roll my own?  It's mind boggling.

under $50.00

Check StuffYourOwn for prices on tobacco

$1.99 for 200 filtered tubes

Make your own cigarettes for as low as $6.99 per Carton! Smoke Quality FILTERED cigarettes that you make yourself using cigarette tubes (like a cigarette without the Cigarette tobacco), our cigarette making machines, and our "roll your own" cigarette tobacco.


-Stop Paying High Cigarette Taxes
-So Much Easier than "Roll Your Own" cigarettes!

and

Smokers United

Roll Your Own Tobacco Store

Roll Your Own Magazine

[Alberta's Child]

Correction -- the tax they owe . . .

LOL. Maybe they bought a sax, too -- I don't know.

[SheLion]

Read just how much smokers in New Jersey are already paying toward the state economy with their cigarette taxes!

Tobacco Taxes and Payments for New Jersey

New Jersey's excise tax per pack of cigarettes: $2.400 New Jersey's excise tax collection for the fiscal year ending June 2005: $780,657,000
Sales tax on tobacco products: 6.00% Tobacco products sales tax collection for the fiscal year ending June 2005: $119,337,000 Local tax on tobacco products: $0
Federal excise tax per pack of cigarettes: $0.39 Total federal excise tax collections in fiscal year 2005: $7,778,569,117
Click here for the Cigarette Tax and Payment Table for all states.
Master Settlement Agreement Payments Received $1,580,657,852 has been paid to New Jersey through Fiscal Year 2005 since the Master Settlement Agreement was signed on November 23, 1998. *Payment amounts based on figures from "The Tax Burden on Tobacco" Volume 40, 2005 by the economic consulting firm of Orzechowski and Walker.
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[GladesGuru]

"I don't believe Indian Reservations will sell to you unless you can prove you are an Indian or a member of a tribe."

NO! NO!! NO ! ! ! !

Here in Florida, the Miccusukkee and the Seminole tribes both have large cigarette sales businesses. The only two forms of "tribal identification" they require for purchasing deeply discounted cigarettes are printed by the US mint, or issued by the 'tribes' of Master Charge, Visa, and American Express.

FReepers need to consider that if bloated states can tax smokers for Internet or reservation purchases, ALL other Internet purchases are likely to also be taxed.

The solution to state revenue demands is a simple one. Shrink the agencies of state government.

"Cut their pay - They go away."

[RetiredArmy]

My understanding is, and I am not a smoker and have never purchased at a rez, that you can pay cash and walk out. NO WA state tax is taken because they do not pay WA state any takes off Rez sales. That is my understanding. WA state has one of the strongest and widest NO smoking in clubs and restaurants in the country. But, you can smoke in any Rez casino or restaurant.

[traviskicks]

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