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

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

[Zon]

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

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that smokers who bought cigarettes over the Internet had better be prepared to cough up taxes they tried to avoid by going online.

"The law says you got to pay your taxes. The handful of people who don't are just stealing from the rest of us," Bloomberg said in a weekly radio address.

The city's finance department this week sent letters to 3,700 smokers asking them to fork over $1.3 million in city taxes from Internet tobacco purchases. 

The annual loss to the city from online tobacco sales totals $40 million, according to Joanna Perlman, a finance department spokeswoman. Some individuals owed as much as $10,000.

"If you have a bill for $10,000 for cigarette taxes, you're a dealer, you're not just smoking," Bloomberg said.

"The finance commissioner is required by the city charter to enforce the law. It's against the law to buy something out of state and bring it in and avoid sales tax," he said. 

[RandallFlagg]

Actually, we smokers are simply expected to grab the ankles.

[pepsionice]

The day when smokers finally figure out that they can grow their own tobacco...just the same way they "might" grown marijuana in the loft of their house...this entire tax game will end. I've only met two individuals over the past 20 years that figured this out and grew their own smokes. If everyone would realize this...they could save themselves thousands of dollars over a lifetime...and even cut out the rich cigarette companies as well.

[RandallFlagg]

I roll my own and may consider growing it soon. I have the land.

[BurbankKarl]

Here is what they do in Glendale, CA. The Armenians open up a smoke shop. They buy some cigarettes from legal CA channels, and the majority from indian reservations. They sell the cigarettes to the public, and also sell them for California food stamps at 50 cents on the dollar. The food stamps are bartered for other goods, or given to the owner's family to buy groceries, since the whole clan is working under the table and applying for state aid at the same time. Mom buys the groceries every few days and drives them home in her new Lexus.

[kingu]

Isn't a person's mail private anymore?

Sure, your mail is private. A business' sales records, on the other hand, aren't private. Number one reason why I've not purchased cigarettes online. (Especially with the handy cigarette tube stuffers like the Supermatic. Two cartons of tubes and a can of tobacco for under $25 (including California's taxes) makes it $12.50 a carton. I invest a little bit of time, and I save a lot of money.)

[kingu]

What were the smokers to do, drop a few bucks in the mail twice a day?

The current legal theory is, well, pretty much that. Pay the tax when you get your shipment of cigarettes, since that is when the tax is owed.

[umgud]

To Bloomberg, et al......... one word comes to mind; INSIDIOUS

[CindyDawg]

Yall registering smoke offenders now? :')

[SAJ]

Not in the mind of a state socialist such as Bloombug (no misspelling, btw), there doesn't. You EXIST in order to be taxed, in his little world. Your function in your life IS to pay whatever taxes are decreed.

Disagree? I've no quarrel. May I respectfully ask you to cite a counterexample, given Bloombug's behaviour after being elected?

FReegards!

[kingu]

The day when smokers finally figure out that they can grow their own tobacco...

I'm sure someone can dig it up, but I believe that in order to grow tobacco, you have to have a permit for it, and the permits are intended for farms, not individuals, so they're priced accordingly.

If I recall correctly, I think I'd rather grow the marijuana; the fines were cheaper.

[Zon]

How about "The politicians who waste and abscond with taxpayers money are stealing from every one of US"

Politicians and bureaucrats for the most part are a pharisaical-elite class. The illusion of them as benefactors is wearing very thin. They have amassed millions of "enemies" that are awaking to realize them for what they are--frauds.

[steplock]

WHAT would I say to this idiot bloomberg if I saw im face to face about this???

just "F.O. F.face!"

I apologize for anyone who might be offended by my abbreviations - but anything less direct to these "people" and they would think you were giving them a compliment.

[Cicero]

The laws of just about every state say you are supposed to 'fess up to the state tax authorities about buying out of state gear, and pay the equivalent in sales taxes to the state. That was always the case for me in New York, in Connecticut, and now in Vermont.

Fat chance. I don't imagine they get a whole lot of responses to these invitations.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

"The law says you got to pay your taxes. The handful of people who don't are just stealing from the rest of us," Bloomberg said in a weekly radio address.

If the goal of sin taxation is to eradicate the vice, how is avoiding paying the tax a theft by smokers from non smokers.

The other thing Bloomberg and his pink republicans and red democrats ought to understand, the more you tax, the bigger grows the black market. Then comes less revenue. Then comes riots and revolution. Then follows the takeover by a warlord and patricians. Then follows the mass purges. Where have I seen this before. Why of course in South America. All we need are a few more millions of illegal Spanish Amerians to make it work here.

[RandallFlagg]

From what I understand, no permit is required. You only need one if you plan to sell what you grow.

[Cobra64]

That's why we left two years ago to NC. I have more shooter toys and smokes at 1/3 the price. Going to the trap range in the AM. - oh wait, it is the AM. Time for beddie-by. Ciao!

[WildTurkey]

California food stamps at 50 cents on the dollar

Food stamps were replaced with EBT in 2002.

[DJ MacWoW]

It's against the law to buy something out of state and bring it in and avoid sales tax,

Capital BULL, Capital S$#t. I buy cigarettes, clothes and everything else either in PA or NJ. Cigarettes especially in Pa. Now the idiot wants to make commerce between states illegal? I don't live in NYC but upstate and if it "flies" in NYC, the rest of the state will try to follow.

[microgood]

States think you are their property. Many want you to pay sales tax on things you bought elsewhere and bring into the state. In Washington, they were actually putting people in parking lots in Oregon for a while(no sales tax) to try and bust people making large purchases(appliances, TVs,etc) in Oregon and bringing them into Washington. These people are beneath pond scum.

[Jaysun]

Actually, we smokers are simply expected to grab the ankles.

Well I'm on your side. You've been forced to discover the exact length and width of the shaft many times over and I think it's outrageous.