Posted on 08/09/2010 11:39:45 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
CHEYENNE -- The Wyoming Department of Revenue has suspended sales tax collections from gun shows because of increasing animosity toward the state's field tax agents. Dan Noble, director of the department's excise tax division, said Friday that an incident at a gun show triggered the decision. He added, however, that resistance from gun show sponsors and participants has been a recurring problem statewide. "I have 10 field reps throughout the state, and every one of them has experienced some animosity," he said. "Folks are nervous anyway because there are guns there. I don't want to put my people at risk."
Guns shows, like craft shows, are required to set up temporary sales tax licenses but do not have to pay the $60 fee for a permanent sales tax license. The department's field tax representatives attend the shows and ask the sponsors to distribute tax forms to the sellers who, in turn, are required to collect and remit sales tax to the Department of Revenue.
Noble said the tax agents have never had a problem with compliance from the craft shows, for example. "We tend to have more trouble at gun shows than any place," Noble said Friday in an interview. "This last incident was something I felt kind of crossed the line and, because of it I have suspended our activity in trying to collect this until we can get a better way of approaching it." He said the "climate" has changed and some of the gun show people are "fairly extreme."
Noble said he didn't want to identify the show where the incident took place because the problem has been statewide. Anthony Bouchard, executive director of the Wyoming Gun Owners' Association, said the only confrontation he knew of was at a gun show in Pine Bluffs. The gun show participant involved was an "in your face" type, he said, adding that he did not believe there was any threat made. "I think they're trying to create a political climate, to make it sound like a bigger thing than it is," he said.
The position of his group, Bouchard said, is that the state shouldn't charge sales tax on gun and ammunition sales because of the Second Amendment right to bear arms. "Everybody's on edge," said John Wise, director of the Pine Bluffs Shooting Association and of the gun show.
Identifying himself as a "tea partier and damned proud of it," Wise said Friday that people are angry at the federal government over health care reform and other actions. Wise said he was sitting at the front desk during the April gun show at Pine Bluffs when a participant got into a confrontation with a state sales tax representative. The tax agent called for backup from the Pine Bluffs Police Department.
Wise said the police officer intervened, the tax agent left and no charges were filed. He said he thought both men had "short fuses." Wise said that individual gun owners who pay $30 to rent a table at a gun show so they can sell a couple of guns should not have to collect sales tax for the state. Bouchard said he will personally work on legislation to exempt gun show sales from the state's sales tax.
Noble said he plans to contact local representatives of the National Rifle Association to see if they have any recommendation to avoid these problems. Since other states are having the same problem, Noble said he will contact them as well. "The last thing in the world I want to do is to involve law enforcement in something like this," he said. "If that's what it takes, I guess we do it. I would rather wait and see if we have opportunity to work with people so it's not threatening to my employees."
Noble informed members of the Legislature's Joint Interim Revenue Committee Thursday of his decision because at some point legislation may be necessary, he said.
FYI: this story is from a month ago...
“... but when the government fears its people there is liberty.”
One way to settle the problem is to keep the State Tax Suckers away/ Gun shows don’t have any trouble until some idiot shows up and wants to change the way they have always operated.
This is in the best American tradition! Our tea-partying Bostonian ancestors would be proud.
Wow! This is great! Yippeee for the Wyoming Country Class gun show people!
The government...any government...absolutely needs to fear the people!
We all know guns have a supernatural power over otherwise sane, stable individuals. The presence of a gun means an increased chance of someone who has been a normal, happy individual throughout life will suddenly snap, grab the gun and begin killing everyone in sight. It's continues to be a problem and a true mystery. </sarcasm>
Geesh!
Probably the last place a gov agent would get shot is at a gun show. But it’s good that you’re afraid and good that the people are giving you some attitude.
IIRC the tax is just under 8%,,,
I have to limit myself to what I can carry in a daypack,,,
A box of this or that,,,
This trip will just be for what I “want”,,,
Always fun...
It sounds to me that Dan Noble, director of the department’s excise tax division, made up this whole story to influence the public. I call BS.
This may not be one hundred percent accurate... but it’s close enough to get the job done...
A government that fears arms in the hands of it’s citizens... should also fear ROPE! Nathan Bedford Forrest... around 1845
Not bad for an illiterate backwoodsman who’s family was but a few years out of the kilt.
I don't see what there is to celebrate here.
I’m hoping that all the leaches that are govt. employees feel a bit of animosity from each and every citizen they deal with.
The message here is this: People are fed up with taxes. Hidden taxes are added daily. There is no such thing as a bad tax to a Democrat (though they themselves will try to evade it).
Okay, I am confused. Was the original incident one where an individual gun owner was selling a couple of his own guns, as the above suggests?
If so, that's not a retail transaction --- it's a private sale --- and I don't see why a retail sales tax could be collected on the private sale to begin with.
My own guess is that the author has mixed up two different subjects: people doing private transactions, which shouldn't be subject to retail sales tax, and the retailers who are selling at a gun show and who do have to comply with retail sales tax laws.
This kinda reminds me of the old fashioned John Wayne type of western, where the city slicker in a silly suit and a bowler hat walks into a bar/saloon full of cowboys and is scared out of his wits by real men ;-)
This tax collector brought his phobias into the room and left with them realised.
BTW, the local policeman thought that both men had short fuses, so this may have not been totally made up, but the tax dude’s response is hyperbolic.
Fuel and tire taxes that support the highway system make sense to me. Income tax and taxes on investment income and interest do not.
What I resent most about people like this inventive whiner is the FACT that they are all guilty of character assassination of good and honorable people. “Ohhhh...there’s evil guns there with conservative people...I MUST make them out to look bad and invent a problem to blame them with!”
Liar.
“Folks are nervous anyway because there are guns there.”
Really! Guns at a gun show, who would have thought! I need a couple guns but I’d be a little nervous going to a gun show to buy one since there are guns there.
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.