Posted on 09/08/2013 5:23:42 AM PDT by Kaslin
“So, what did you do during your summer break?” If you happen to be a certain 12 year old boy from Pocatello, Idaho, you spent the summer being productive and successfully carrying on an entrepreneurial venture, and then experiencing your state government cracking-down on you for not being licensed and demanding a portion of your revenues.
The 12 year old son of Jason Weeks is who we’re talking about. Weeks’ son announced at the beginning of the summer that he wanted to acquire a motorcycle. Weeks had the good sense to tell his son to earn money and purchase one for himself. So the son took the father’s advice, and – presumably with some help from some adults – he launched a fruit stand, right near a Red Wings Shoe store in small town Pocatello.
But soon after Weeks’ son launched, the Idaho State Tax Commission lunged. “They confronted him first and he called me” Weeks told the Idaho State Journal newspaper. “It was the second day that my son was in business.”
According to Weeks and the local newspaper, the state is demanding payment for a 6% state sales tax that they claim should have been collected by the boy from cash paying customers that bought his raspberries. Weeks would not return my calls prior to the writing of this piece, but, without commenting specifically about the incident, the state tax commission acknowledges that it happened and notes that they have to enforce the law with everybody.
Americans everywhere should make note of this situation and learn from it. Lesson number one is that nobody should attempt to launch any sort of business in the United States without making certain that they are in full compliance with city, county, state and federal regulations. That’s a tall order, but that’s how costly it has become to do business in America.
Governments nationwide and at all levels are almost universally on the hunt for money, and many of them are broke. There is no limit to governments’ willingness to turn people upside down and shake cash out of their pockets, and they’ll even do it with children. (The Idaho state tax commission had a similar run-in with a 6 year old back in 2010!). If a business is being operated without the proper licensure and permitting requirements being met, and without proper taxation procedures in place, an operator no matter their age will likely be fined for being out of compliance, and fined retroactively for however long the non-compliance has been happening. Business owners, beware.
The other great lesson in this situation is to realize that we live in an era of abusive government. Agents of city, county, state and federal government often don’t know any limits to how they can and will exercise their powers over the lives of private individuals, and the cause of the problem is we, the people. With often less than 50% of the American population participating in U.S. presidential elections, voter turn-out for state and local elections is usually even smaller. Such ambivalence is emboldening to bureaucrats and politicians who have power and enjoy using it.
Abusive government won’t stop until Americans wake up and choose otherwise. Hopefully the young Mr. Weeks from Pocatello – and others in his generation – will someday choose more wisely than today’s adult population.
I wonder where he was parked? It looks like a strip mall or store parking lot. Perhaps someone from a grocery or supermarket didn’t like the competition. The amount of fruit stacked in the van looks like he should have been in a farmer’s market and followed the standard practices of his location. That being said I deplore sales tax at farmers markets and craft shows. Uncle Sam needs to get out of our way not find more ways to pluck the captive chickens (us).
This post intrigues me. First, I had no idea Idaho had been taken over by progressives; it’s still considered a conservative state (so far, in voting record in national elections), yet the population permits all sorts of punitive government.
With a little research, the father could help his son figure out a loophole. If it’s permitted under the Idaho regime to “give away” property (not subject to resale taxes) then as a minor he can create a “Schedule for Delivery” of the fruit...that is, “Delivery from my box to your hand”. Or perhaps he can perform another service (dance a jig). Or ‘fee to throw a water balloon at effigy of the president for free fruit’.
The Administrative Rules for Sales & Use Tax in Idaho are 127 pages long. I see no rules that apply to ‘donation’ of food other than the fact that tax must have been paid to purchase the fruits & vegetables. Furthermore, best I can tell from the horrible search feature on IRS’ website, if a minor dependent makes less than $950 in ‘income’ there is no requirement for filing of Federal Income Tax. Without expending more time on Idaho, I presume the same applies for State Income Tax. (On the latter, I view State Income Tax MUCH less intrusive than progressive state sales tax, but concede its role in federal tax reform)
In closing, I wouldn’t be surprised that the State of Idaho has rules totally undercutting my creative bypassing of tax laws for a child’s ingenuity to earn a buck...having had the experience turned into a bitter lesson on the encroachment of government...a lesson the youngster won’t soon forget.
Correction: Section 105(06)b:
“Goods sold or produced and consumed by the retailer,
items withdrawn from stock for personal use or employee use, stock removed and used for gift or promotional
purposes, or any combination of such uses are subject to tax.”
Oh well...there’s a lesson here for Idahoans (and other States considering a State Sales Tax).
Is there a rule that if you are young enough, you get to set up a business?
Or would we be equally upset if a 20-year-old set up a shop on our street and started operating?
If the taxes and regulations are too great, and they are, we should change the law for all business operators, not get upset when someone who violates those laws gets in trouble.
There are business ventures kids can do that aren’t going to run into these problems. Selling actual food will — ask the farmer’s market where the people who GROW the food do this every week. They don’t want to have to compete against others who throw a stand on a street corner and don’t pay the fees and collect the taxes.
The question is, where did the child get the stuff he sold. If he bought it all at a market where it was already taxed, then it should not be taxed again — he is really operating a delivery service.
One other thing — they told him on the 2nd day of operation that he had to collect the sales tax.
All he needed to do at that point was start adding 6% to each purchase, and he’d have had the money to pay the taxes.
I’m on the fence on this one. It’s not like the old lemonade stand harassment. If the pic is any indication, that appears to be a pretty well stocked and sophisticated operation. I find it hard to believe a kid put that together all by himself. Maybe he did, I don’t know.
You mean we use to live in the United States?
More information — the grandfather had a farm. The child was selling Raspberries from the farm.
So essentially he was operating a fruit stand, and the state wanted him to collect sales tax, just as every farmer who sets up a fruit stand in the state has to collect the sales tax.
If the people are upset by this in Idaho, they should lobby their representatives to change the law.
MOre interestingly, the Idaho Sales Tax applies to donated items that are then sold (at their fair market value). In some states, once sales tax is paid on an item (when it is sold new at a store), they don’t collect sales tax if someone re-sells the item. But Idaho does.
I wonder if that means that a yard sale in Idaho has to collect sales tax, or if it is only if a business runs a charitable sale that it gets collected. I couldn’t find that information yet.
Wait, I found it. You can have 2 yard sales a year before you are required to get a “seller permit” and collect sales tax.
Now that is a line that I can use! Funny and with enough truth in it to sting a little!
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