Posted on 02/19/2007 7:47:23 PM PST by ShadowDancer
State Cracks Down On Those Avoiding Cigarette Tax
POSTED: 4:52 pm EST February 19, 2007
Buying cigarettes out of state?
If Michigan officials find out about it, they said they'll try to collect state taxes on the tobacco anyway.
More than 9,000 Michigan residents have been ordered to pay back taxes after buying cigarettes without paying the state's $2 tobacco tax and 6 percent use tax.
"I wouldn't have done it if I had known," Janet Jones, 64, of Shiawassee County's Owosso Township, who purchased cigarettes through mail orders from a New York-based company, told The Argus-Press for a story published Saturday.
People who violate the state's Tobacco Products Tax Act can face fines, imprisonment, or both. Individuals found guilty are liable for taxes with interest, plus a penalty of 500 percent of the amount of the tax due.
Jones was ordered to pay about $5,000 for 40 cartons she purchased in 2005 and 2006.
"The Department of Treasury has tried very hard over the past few years to make it very clear that there are no such thing as a tax-free cigarettes -- not legally anyway," spokesman Terry Stanton said.
Unstamped tobacco products are considered contraband, he said.
"If it's on the books as a tax it's our duty to ensure its collected and collect it appropriately," Stanton said.
More than 80 percent of the revenues brought in from the state tobacco tax are split between the School Aid Fund and Medicaid trust fund.
Michigan is a Marxist hellhole run by a communist governor put in office by brainless, brainwashed useful idiots.
Productive people are leaving by the tens of thousands along with thousands of businesses.
Michigan is an example of what will happen to America if the Stalinist Hillary gets into the whitehouse.
Avoid Michigan at all costs.
Been here for almost 38 years, little hard to do that now.
**Roll your own.**
Exactly.
If you really want to save some money and avoid the outrageous taxes, you can spend 15-20 minutes a day rolling them for a buck a pack.
If you choose the right loose tobacco, they will also taste better than any brand you can buy.
Washington State confiscates your car.
Almost perfect except everyone's buying the stuff now.
And we're supposed to be protected by the federal constitution against this sort of theft, but who's paying attention to the constitution?
The federal and state governments are already engaged in anarchy, deciding which laws it will or won't enforce. When citizens catch on to the scam and decide they won't obey laws either, we'll see war in this country.
All the better, more money for the state.
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