[HoggerFox]

I may be mistaken but I thought buying anything through the internet, mail order, ebay, etc.. from out of state meant you didn't have to pay sales tax. Cigarettes i suppose didnt' fall under that but now Bloomberg is saying that ANYTHING bought out of state YOU are responsible for paying sales tax..I thought it was the sellers responsibilty to charge sales tax if necessary, not chase down each and every buyer of some product and nail them with a large bill and 30 days to pay up or else. Doesn't everyone buy stuff like bed linens or towels, clothing, etc... from the internet usually from out of state? Will we all get a letter going back a few years saying we owe like $40,000 for the purchases of everything we bought since the year 2001 or something like that? I'm wondering what's to come in the future.
Since the company Andy found that had his BRONCO cigs available happened to be out of state because they DON'T sell that brand here and he orders them. He sees a total, pays it via credit card and waits for the delivery not knowing if he was charged tax or not because the seller figures taxes in I thought. Plus like mentioned before, out of state purchases people thought were tax free anyway. He wasn't trying to avoid tax, he just wanted to find his favorite economy brand of BRONCO's. That's all, now he's being treated like a criminal along with thousands of other people. The FACT that they KNEW the exact number of cartons from 4/2002 through 7/2004 and that they were delivered and signed for is very scarey. That's why he went to the NY Post to ask about the letter. The letter didn't even explain how they got his name, what retailer he purchased from, or anything telling how they knew so much about him. That is what was the alarming thing, not so much the $1005 due. They must have gone to U.P.S. and got their records of signatures, it's the only way they could have known of delivery. Isn't that sort of infringing on civil rights? or privacy?

[SheLion]

I posted the following earlier:

If the bankrupt internet company, Cigs4Cheap.com, was based in New York when it sold cigarettes to New Yorkers sales-tax free, it shouldn't be legal to charge the buyers.

I've read the seller is supposed to pay the sales and other taxes upfront before the sale and then collect the tax back from the buyer. That's what Amazon said too, when I e-mailed them with my question. The internet tax law, as it applies to them, is on their site.

I don’t understand the concept.  Smokers are using a product that if they didn’t use, the government would make NO money. The government raised the tax to a point where it was more attractive to buy elsewhere than pay the tax.  This is called free exchange of goods and services.  (Free enterprise).  There is no cheating here; this situation allows for no such thing as cheating.  If the price is too high, buy elsewhere.   

These people need to tell the state of New York to go to hell.  From what I understand, it is still illegal to tax internet sales unless the store has a physical location in your state.  When I make internet purchases of other goods there are no taxes unless there is a physical store in Kentucky.  

This is nothing but greed.

I posted the following earlier:

If the bankrupt internet company, Cigs4Cheap.com, was based in New York when it sold cigarettes to New Yorkers sales-tax free, it shouldn't be legal to charge the buyers.

I've read the seller is supposed to pay the sales and other taxes upfront before the sale and then collect the tax back from the buyer. That's what Amazon said too, when I e-mailed them with my question. The internet tax law, as it applies to them, is on their site.

I don’t understand the concept.  Smokers are using a product that if they didn’t use, the government would make NO money. The government raised the tax to a point where it was more attractive to buy elsewhere than pay the tax.  This is called free exchange of goods and services.  (Free enterprise).  There is no cheating here; this situation allows for no such thing as cheating.  If the price is too high, buy elsewhere.   

These people need to tell the state of New York to go to hell.  From what I understand, it is still illegal to tax internet sales unless the store has a physical location in your state.  When I make internet purchases of other goods there are no taxes unless there is a physical store in Kentucky.  

This is nothing but greed.

I don’t understand the concept.  Smokers are using a product that if they didn’t use, the government would make NO money. The government raised the tax to a point where it was more attractive to buy elsewhere than pay the tax.  This is called free exchange of goods and services.  (Free enterprise).  There is no cheating here; this situation allows for no such thing as cheating.  If the price is too high, buy elsewhere.   

These people need to tell the state of New York to go to hell.  From what I understand, it is still illegal to tax internet sales unless the store has a physical location in your state.  When I make internet purchases of other goods there are no taxes unless there is a physical store in Kentucky.  

This is nothing but greed.

[mvpel]

I may be mistaken but I thought buying anything through the internet, mail order, ebay, etc.. from out of state meant you didn't have to pay sales tax.

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.

[Bonaparte]

Buy from the Indians and do it out of state, just to be sure. Indian sales can't be taxed. This is what I do. There is no tax stamp on any of these packs.