Geez, you’d think we lived in the United States, or something.
The mafia calls this protection money.
I call it “predatory government”. They liked using the term “predatory lenders” for the people who sold home mortgages but the predatory government is far worse. Look what they’ve done now for student college loans - they nationalized them then jacked up the interest rate, all in the name of “fixing” something when they were the largest part of the problem.
How is this different than paying money to the Mafia for “protection”?
Government is oppressive when it demands a part of your income so it can give it to cronies and use it to buy votes from the Taker class.
In Tennessee we have a Farmer’s market exemption. No sales tax for retail sales at a Farmer’s Market. I don’t know the definition of such a stand but if the boy was selling his own product, he would be exempt.
It appears someone ratted him out and the scale of his business was too large. To be noticed on the second day means someone was after him and sicced the tax guys on him
I guess Idaho has a sales tax on food. Most places I have lived do not tax food unless it is sold for consumption on the premises.
The is a sliver of a silver lining. The government probably created another government thug hating person in that Weeks kid and his family. Someone who doesn’t trust, believe in, and hates these bureaucrats, hopefully with a blinding fury.
In todays world, that’s a good thing for our society.
Bump
so big deal
the kid should have paid 6% sales tax and learned about the real world of business where taxes are part of your costs
or formed a nonprofit to shelter his wealth like the really really rich people do
Idaho must be one of the few states which puts sales tax on FOOD.
What is happening, is that America is being sold.
I say America is being sold, not things American.
What we need is NOW to equalize our tariffs with the globe.
All imports must be charged import duties, and all inported goods must pay for the right to be sold in America.
Now.
Not sometime in some future.
Right now.
I’m glad I am old enough to remember when this was still a free country. Sorry to see it go.
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.
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.