Posted on 02/21/2005 6:46:21 AM PST by Zon
Hundreds of Michigan residents are getting a big surprise this tax season--hefty tax bills for cigarettes they bought online over the past four years.
The state sent the bills to 553 residents last week after subpoenaing 13 online tobacco shops for names of Michigan customers and their order histories, a Michigan Treasury Department spokesman Caleb Buhs said on Friday. The tax bills are based on information from just one store, and the state expects to collect more names from the others.
Collectively, the people receiving this first round of bills owe the state $1.4 million, an average of $2,500 per person, Buhs said. They have until March 14 to pay.
"At its most fundamental level, this is an issue of tax fairness," State Treasurer Jay B. Rising said in a statement. "It is only right that out-of-state vendors, who conduct business only online and at arms length, follow the letter of the law. These taxes are collected by brick-and-mortar businesses in Michigan, and Internet vendors should not be allowed to skirt their responsibility."
Michigan, which levies a $2 tax on every pack of cigarettes, collected $993 million in tobacco taxes last year, Buhs said.
eSmokes, one of the top tobacco sellers on the Web, cancelled thousands of orders to Michigan customers after hearing about the tax crackdown, an eSmokes representative said. The representative would not discuss whether the store has been subpoenaed by Michigan or any other state.
Michigan did not disclose which companies it has subpoenaed.
Other states, including California, Washington and Wisconsin, have launched efforts to collect tobacco taxes from residents who dodged them online. A 2002 report (click for .pdf) from the U.S. General Accounting Office said most states tax the sale of cigarettes, and that online sales have cost them millions of dollars in lost revenue.
Internet shops that don't tell states about tobacco purchases by people other than licensed distributors are flouting a federal law known as the Jenkins Act. Laws that exempt online retailers from collecting sales taxes do not apply to tobacco excise taxes, the GAO report said.
Smokers had no problem with separated smoking and non-smoking areas. But no, the non-smokers could not accept a compromise that has worked will for all parties involved.
Today, this smoker is fighting back!
People like you did not provide a designated smoking area, so citizens like me can and WILL smoke anywhere that we choose.
If today, we blow our smoke directly into your face, then tough luck. It was your choice.
People like you were unable to demonstrate a mutual respect toward your fellow citizens. Smokers did move outside into the rain and freezing weather, but that was not good enough for you.
This citizen will no longer demonstrate a mutual respect toward non-smokers.
Nonsmokers are pawns for tax happy Demoncrats.
Then when the beast doesn't have the revenue to pay the bill, let them default and deal with the collection agencies.
I have to live on a budget, so should they.
Get rid of ALL social and entitlement programs. Those who can't swim will find out what "natural selection" means in the most eloquent way possible.
http://jbs.org
The Mexicans just laughed and understood exactly why I did what I was doing.
Do they know about U.S. smoking bans or just the general complaint about people smoking was what they laughed at?
Do you have a link to any information at the resort you went to? Do they have any golf courses included?
And I dearly miss yesmoke, but as I put in #163:
Most viable 2 choices: quit or roll yer own...I'm a C.O.B. & quit
Difficult to explain, but this is how it would often happen in the last two weeks:
1) A smoker (usually me) is minding his own business.
2) A non-smoker American gets rude and demand that the cigarette be extinguished....
3) The Mexican boat crew sits back and looks forward to a good show!
4) Words get exchanged and the non-smoker ends up in a large cloud of smoke. Futile request for help from the boat crew, are ignored.
5) The Mexican boat crew gets a $20 tip.
6) Non-smoker American learned a valuable lesson about mutual respect.
C.O.B.?
Outstanding hotel, and I will return next year. Each year, my wife and I try out a new hotel in Cozumel, and we finally located one that met our rather subjective criteria.
My wife is crippled but a great scuba diver. Finding a four star hotel with easy boat access, good food and outstanding employees is not easy to find.
Today, I can proudly endorse this hotel! After a four year search, we found "home."
Did it ever occur to them that lowering the tobacco tax might have a better effect?
Of course not.....someone might lose their precious pork project and lose campaign contributions.
C.O.B = (cheap ol' bastard)
While I don't condone intentionally blowing smoke in the face of others.........I do understand your reason.
Read this "LAW" comment several times......
BULLSHIP! 55 mph Speed Limit is a LAW...Is it only a law if you get caught??
So I will be following you down the highway to see if you respect the law which must come above your own urge to exceed the limit.
Semper Fi
Send the state a letter asking them how much of your money is being spent on Hitlery Clintons 60 person entourage, and tell them if they want more money, she should get rid of them because you don`t believe in supporting sychophants for a psychopath.
https://www.travel-center.com/hoteles/hoteles.asp?Hotel=0164
Cozumel just opened a world class golf resort. Since I do not play golf, I am not sure if this is the correct link.
However, I do know that Cozumel now has an outstanding golf resort that was opened this year.
Good luck you C.O.B.
Smokers are very respectful people and were more than willing to confine themselves to designated smoking areas.
But that was not good enough!
So today, since there are no longer designated smoking areas in much of America, citizens like me can no longer smoke away from others...
Contrary to their desire, non-smokers in America have designated everywhere as a smoking zone.
The concept of separated smoking and non-smoking zones are now null-and-void. It was their choice, and they chose incorrectly.
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