Posted on 06/29/2003 1:49:58 AM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:15:00 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
New Yorkers dodging heavy taxes on cigarettes by buying from Native American sellers on the Internet could be hearing soon from the taxman.
Under a settlement in the federal appeals court, the Ojibwa Trading Post, a popular online cigarette vendor based in upstate New York, has agreed to report its sales and hand over customer names to authorities every two weeks, effective immediately.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
A truer ad would show that stack and then the pile of money that the state and federal government collects in taxes on cigarette sales.
I thought that retailers were taxed on sales and that many chose to pass that tax along to their customers.
I would think that the seller would be liable for paying the tax, not the buyers. Is there a tax duty that must be paid by the buyer for cigarettes purchased by visitors to an Indian reservation?
The best way to foil the taxman who places outrageous taxes on cigarettes is not to smoke. If you don't purchase cigarettes, you won't have to pay the taxes.
You want to smoke? Fine. But then it's a choice to pay the taxes. It's very hard to be sympathetic. Sure, I'd like to see lower (or no special - only ordinary sales) taxes on tobacco products, but I'm in the minority as are you. If enough people disagree, eventually, you will get rid of the taxes.
I suppose if you want to defy the law, you could purchase tobacco products on the reservation in person, with cash, arriving by bus and using an alias. Seems like a whole lot of trouble to me.
How sneeringly statist of you.
I suppose the best answer to the Stamp Act was to quit doing any official business with the Crown.
Quitting, my dear sir, has never been an American response.
I personally would like to see a rebirth of the Sons of Liberty and the trashing of a few tax collectors homes.
Someone else would have to do it of course, as I smoke too much to make a running getaway. LOL!
Seriously, I'd like to see a two week boycott of all tobacco vendors nationwide and a simultanious boycott of the restaurant and bar business.
Two weeks of zero income for Federal and state governments, tobacco companies, restaurants and bars should be just about long enough for these bullies (govs), spineless toads(tobacco companies), and deluded "even playing field" cretins (restaurant and bar owners) to see where their bread is buttered.
But allowing yourself to be browbeaten into submission, into downcast foot-shuffling, by some online character you don't even know doesn't speak well for character strength, does it now?
Boo freakin' hoo...
The best way to foil the taxman who places outrageous taxes on cigarettes is not to smoke. If you don't purchase cigarettes, you won't have to pay the taxes.
You want to smoke? Fine. But then it's a choice to pay the taxes. It's very hard to be sympathetic. Sure, I'd like to see lower (or no special - only ordinary sales) taxes on tobacco products, but I'm in the minority as are you. If enough people disagree, eventually, you will get rid of the taxes.
I suppose if you want to defy the law, you could purchase tobacco products on the reservation in person, with cash, arriving by bus and using an alias. Seems like a whole lot of trouble to me.
As a matter of principal, I don't believe that governments should use taxes to either encourage or discourage any voluntary actions. Using taxes in this way violates what taxes are supposed to be for (funding the government) by setting up a situation where the government is making money, but that money will decrease over time, since the taxation will ultimately reduce usage, which will require even higher taxes to sustain the levels of income.
I'm all for evading these sort of taxes. I believe that the entire tobacco settlement was wrong. I even wrote to RJR that they should "fess-up" and move all production and assets overseas, and refuse to sell their products in the US anymore. Can you imagine the outcry if the governments (state and federal) were to lose that cash cow?
Mark
Kind of hard for even otherwise intelligent people to resist posturing, isn't it.
It is so easy totally to miss the essence of the principle.
First they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out -
Because I was not a Jew.
It takes little or no effort to renounce one's faith. Why not to escape injustice?
Then they came for the communists
And I did not speak out -
Because I was not a communist.
Do you realize how easy it is to deny that you're communist?
Takes very little effort.
Hollywood did it successfully in the 30s 40s and 50s, and they contnue to this day. So that's never a problem.
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out -
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Millions of people earn a very good living without becoming unionists, so this has got to be super-easy to avoid.
Then they came for me -
And there was no-one left
To speak out for me.
Pastor Niemöller, 1938
Of course you're perfect, so there is nothing to worry about there...
Of course, you may be bald.
Bald people have no right to live...
Can we "vote" on that too?
I smoke because I choose to, and try to ignore the social manipulators who use the guns and authority of government to control others, but...
To send a clear message, I could easily go a month without tobacco, or non-food purchases of any kind, for that matter.
Let's see...
8.5% of 25%... that should be noticeable.
Absolutely. I read this moronic post implying if that a cigarette sales tax would lead inexorably to tyranny.
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