N.Y. asks online cigarette buyers to cough up tax

News.com ^ | 1/14/2004 | Reuters

[SheLion]

A Kick In The Ash

Smokers' free Web ride ends as city hits 'em with tax bill

January 13, 2005 
BY NANCY DILLON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER 
 
Sheila Hansen received a whopping tax bill. 
 
Smokers, beware: City Hall is coming for your wallets.

The city has quietly launched a crackdown on New Yorkers who have bought tax-free cigarettes via the Internet, the Daily News has learned.

Some 2,300 city smokers were hit this week with warning letters from the city Finance Department, threatening severe penalties unless the back taxes are paid.

It's the first big crackdown of its kind in the city, officials said, with the smokers' names coming from a landmark Virginia court decision involving the now-defunct Cigs4Cheap.com Internet site.

"You owe $900 in New York City cigarette tax," read the letter sent to Manhattan resident Sheila Hansen.

"If you fail to pay," the note continued, "the Finance Department may also require you to pay interest on the tax due and penalties up to $200 per carton."

In Hansen's case, that would be a penalty tipping $12,000.

"How dare they ask for $900 in 30 days. Do they think I'm [Mayor] Bloomberg?" Hansen told The News. "The tone of the letter is so threatening. I didn't even know I was doing anything wrong."

The city and state boosted taxes on cigarettes to $3 a pack in July 2002, driving the cost of a pack of smokes to $7. That drove many smokers to tax-free cigs on the Internet, where 10-pack cartons can be had for less than $30.

City officials said sneaky smokers now cheat the city out of more than $40 million a year in unpaid cigarette taxes.

And they said the 2,300 smokers - representing nearly $1 million in lost tax revenue - are just a start.

They're planning to send another 1,800 letters to parties who appear to have resold the cigarettes they purchased on Cigs4Cheap.com.

People who bought tax-free smokes from other Web sites still owe the city money, but they won't be getting letters - not yet, anyway.

"This is the first time we've done this. It's part of a new, long-term effort to ensure we're enforcing the cigarette tax laws," said Finance Commissioner Martha Stark.

And although the city's efforts have been unpublicized, they won't be for long: A newspaper ad campaign designed to educate smokers about their tax obligations will soon be unveiled.

Once the ad campaign starts, Stark said the city may decide to charge interest on any tax owed.

She said the enforcement is necessary to "level the playing field" for cigarette vendors in the city and safeguard the goal of the $3-per-pack cigarette tax.

"The tax was increased because we wanted to keep young people from starting to smoke," Stark said. "Going on the Internet and purchasing packs without the tax evades the strategy around saving people's lives."

New York State tax officials also have the option of going after the puffers to collect the state's portion of the unpaid taxes.

Hansen admitted she did buy some cartons off the Web several years ago, but said the Web site said the purchase was completely legal. She quit smoking in November 2003, she said.

"I'm losing sleep over this," Hansen complained. "They could have at least offered a grace period, or maybe an amnesty.

"The whole thing is just such an outrage. How are they going to punish just 2,300 people when there are hundreds of thousands of others doing the same thing?"

With Daniel Dunaief
http://www.nydailynews.com

 

[MarkL]

Is that nationwide? I heard that you can grow it, but not sell it.

THAT would be a property rights case I'd love to see!

According to my cousin, tobacco is a controlled substance. Think about it... Cocaine is used in legal pharmacuticals. But do you think that you could grow cacoa (sp?) plants legally in the US? No way. Because it's a controlled substance. At least that's what he told me.

Mark

[MamaTexan]

It started with a lawsuit from Phillip Morris. Yesmoke had 2 domains - Yesmoke.com and Yesmoke.ch. Com means it originates out of the US and ch means the website originates out of Switzerland.

Anyway, PM filed suit and actually forced Yesmoke.com to shut down! (can you say PAYOFF?)

The feds are trying to put them out of business via the 'death of a thousand cuts'.

They've stopped all US shipments because of the FBI seizures, and folks like me are just out of the money and no merchandise to show for it.

Our own government is FORCING Americans to purchase locally so they can have the revenue, even though the shipments are all perfectly LEGAL!

[SheLion]

I bought some rolling papers, and a pouch of "Bull Durham" tobacco, and proceeded to make really bad, handrolled cigarettes

This machine is the secret to beautifully rolled cigarettes:

[RandallFlagg]

HAAA!! That reminds me of an incident that happened on my ship.

I was on the DC team for my division and I was sitting by our locker working on some firefighting nozzles. We sometimes stashed cans of soda and bags of chips in the locker, along with the tools and parts required for the job. I had 2 guys under me: SN Pendleton and BM3 Jeffords. Jeffords was a big spittin' tobacco user.

Well, there I was, working quietly on my gear on the deck and here comes Pendleton up the ladder and heading for the locker. I saw him out of the corner of my eye going for a can of Mountain Dew. Next thing I hear is, "BL-L-L-L-E-E-H-H-H!!!!! I'm gonna KILL HIM!!!"

That's right. He just took a huge mouthful of Jeffords's plug and yacked it all over the deck!

I must've laughed for about 20 minutes!

[RikaStrom]

I must be incredibly dense, but I could never get that dang thing to play nice with me. Hence now ordering from OK. :-)

[RandallFlagg]

Ugh! I was afraid it was something like that.

BTW, Have you been reading MarkL's posts about growing your own tobacco?

[RandallFlagg]

What kind of problems did you have with it?

[MarkL]

BTW, Have you been reading MarkL's posts about growing your own tobacco?

I just took a look at the USDA-AMS site, but there's really nothing there. I also did an ask.com and google search, but haven't found anything concrete yet. What I've posted came from a cousin who used to work for the USDA.

If I find anything concrete, I'll be sure to post it.

Mark

[RandallFlagg]

I noticed that a great many of these tobacco-related threads usually keep themselves in the actual boards and aren't shoved into, "Chat" or "Bloggers." Perhaps the Admins smoke, too?

[SheLion]

I must be incredibly dense, but I could never get that dang thing to play nice with me. Hence now ordering from OK. :-)

I'm sure sorry to hear that. But there is a lever on the front that you can adjust to fit the filtered tubes. Have you tried fiddling with that? Change the settings to get the best results?

Also, you can't jam the slot with a lot of tobacco. Just fill it fairly tight, not real tight. Try experimenting with the settings and try using less tobacco. Maybe that will help.

[RandallFlagg]

Please do. Because I grow venus's flytraps and this might be a new plant growing hobby -one with a payoff.

[SheLion]

I noticed that a great many of these tobacco-related threads usually keep themselves in the actual boards and aren't shoved into, "Chat" or "Bloggers." Perhaps the Admins smoke, too?

Probably. I read somewhere where 70% of Freepers smoke. And just our luck we get the piss ants in here. :( What does that tell you!

[meatloaf]

That only applies if you're growing tobacco commercially. If it's for your own use, you're home free. If you're growing an acre of the stuff, don't try to persuade them it's for your own use.

[MamaTexan]

Have you been reading MarkL's posts about growing your own tobacco?

No, but now that you've given me the tip, I think I'll go check it out!

Thanks, BTW!

[RandallFlagg]

I look at it this way: We're all conservatives. Unlike liberals, we are capable of using logic and reason to make our points.

They DO get rather insulting, though.

[RikaStrom]

LOL, oh heck, I never even saw the levers and adjustments.

That's ok, since I am buying for two now, DiscountCigs is the way to go for us.

Of course, I could just be mechanically challenged. ;-)

[RandallFlagg]

I'm wondering about a couple of things. If it turns out to be legal...

A. How much land would be required to maintain 2 smokers in the house year-round.

B. How would tobacco grow in the dry climate of Denver.

[SheLion]

They DO get rather insulting, though.

You wouldn't believe it! And just because they don't like the SMELL.

[RandallFlagg]

Your insight on the questions posed in this post would be greatly appreciated, Mama.