Posted on 01/15/2005 11:55:06 AM PST by HoggerFox
NYC: Smokers Who Buy Online Need To Pay Up City Enforcing Cigarette Tax Laws
Jan 13, 2005 12:20 pm US/Eastern NEW YORK (CBS) The New York City Finance Department has ordered smokers who bought tax-free cigarettes on the Internet to pay city taxes on their purchases.
The demands were made in letters mailed this week.
Finance Commissioner Martha Stark says it's part of a new effort to enforce the cigarette tax laws."
The city mailed letters to about 2,300 people whose names were obtained from cigs4cheap.com, which is no longer operating. The letters warned that recipients who failed to pay the back taxes would be penalized up to $200 for every carton purchased online.
I was taken back. There was no warning and the letter was written rather nastily, says Andrew Hoffer, a smoker from Maspeth.
Andrew Hoffer was one of 2,314 New Yorkers who got letter from city finance department demanding payment of city cigarette taxes for cigs purchased on Internet.
In Hoffer's case, the city says he owns $1,005 on 67 cartons of Bronco cigarettes he bought from a now defunct website cigaretteoutlet.com. If he doesn't pay up in 30 days, he will be fined $200 a carton, which in his case adds up $13,400.
"I think its unfair taxation," says Hoffer.
City officials told CBS 2 they hope to recoup $1,000,000 in unpaid taxes, but that's just the beginning. Two more sets of stunning letters are due to go out shortly. One mailing will go out to 1,800 people while a third mailing is still being sorted out but there could be millions more in unpaid taxes to be collected. That is just New York City's share.
The state of New York is also expected to pounce cause by going to the Internet smokers can save a bundle.
For example, a $7.00 pack of Marlboro in the city includes $1.50 in city taxes, $1.50 in state taxes and 39 cents in federal taxes. But at the website, the same cigarettes are just a $1.29 a pack.
Hoping to avoid paying the taxes, some smokers turned to Internet sites, mail-order catalogs and tax-exempt Indian merchants.
Mayor Bloomberg praised his finance commissioner Thursday for going after the tax.
(See url link for story and click on the "2,300 people have already gotten letters, Marcia Kramer reports." link on the CBS page for the video of what aired on the News on Television, interview took place in my home.)
http://cbsnewyork.com/topstories/topstoriesny_story_013111240.html
Utter BS to single out a legal product like this.
I roll my own and never ordered a carton from the Internet. But I sure feel sorry for everyone that does. Not that anything will come of this, but with the filthy lawmakers we have in office, I wouldn't put anything past them.
True enough.
Here's the last refuge for the moment:
An online dealer is only required to collect taxes for residents of their state. You can't expect a seller to know the tax laws of every other state.
It is in fact the buyers responsibility to make things right with their own local and state governments. When you buy a car out of state you do not get charged tax. You pay the tax upon licensing it in your own state. You can't get out of paying the tax because you bought it across the state line. This is a normal practice. No one complains about this because of dollar value I guess and it is to easy for the state to follow.
I have heard of only one argument that I believe could apply in this situation and could get everybody off the hook. Everyone needs to look into the federal laws governing interstate commerce. I believe it is the reason internet businesses don't have to charge state taxes.
In Washington state the cigarette cops were stopping people to inspect whether or not they had bought cigs in Idaho (quite a bit cheaper due to WA rediculous tax). If they were found I believe they were confiscating them. Didn't ever hear how this turned out but I believe they used the interstate commerce act to shut down the illegal confiscation. Don't know if they ended up paying the difference in tax. Don't know why they should since they were paying Idaho tax.
Wait until they start taxing food, revenue officers will be in your kitchen to taxz your pasta machine.
Thanks for the link. I bookmarked it.
I still can't understand how Napster got off. What the heck is the difference.
I believe this applies to anything the feds tax. I know it does for liquor, gasoline, automobiles, etc. It appears it applies to anything that has federal and state or local taxes. The feds call them luxury taxes I believe.
In Oklahoma they DO tax food.
Hey and what gets me is just about every year another scandal comes out about the city council, like spending taxpayer cash to go on vacations, or taxpayer cash to redecorate their offices, or taxpayer cash to buy cars and bus trips, and how do New Yorkers react? Why they vote democrat over and over and over and over. It`s like Washington and Massachussets "Oh so what if Marion Barry smoked crack with a hooker, we want him as Mayor again!" or "So what if Ted Kennedy drinks his azz off and drives off bridges, let`s elect him again and again and again" It is truly the party of the idiots, it really is. Idiots electing idiots, and then when it get`s so incredibly bad that they can stand it anymore, like when David Dinkins practically let the city burn to the ground, they elect a Republican like Giuliani, and what do they do when they find out Giuliani actually does his job? Why they protest him over and over and over over and call him Hitler. "What do you mean you are getting tough on crime?? Waaah! You are Hitler! Waah!"
I'm talking about the new taxes they want to put on any food attributed to obesity. It's just the around the corner from the way the talks are going.
HAAA!! I just discovered that site last week!
Time to bring back the Libertarians!
The best way to start off that new marriage would be for you both to leave that dump and move to "Red country".
Actually, that's not correct - the seller does not have to collect the sales tax, but you are still liable for the use tax imposed by your state on the sale. Hardly anyone does it, unless they're forced to for things like cars that you have to register in your home state.
Seems to me it's up to the State to prove delivery.
If the merchandise went up in smoke?
Bump-a-puff!
I actually called the candidates themselves to ask them questions on their stances on issues like firearms, taxes, etc. Loopie was the only one I couldn't reach. I voted for the guy who answered correctly (who lost); he passed my test.
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