Posted on 09/03/2007 6:33:18 PM PDT by Wheee The People
Nebraska trying to collect back cigarette taxes
Monday, September 3, 2007 4:44 PM CDT
LINCOLN, Neb. - The state of Nebraska has sent letters to more than 500 residents telling them they owe taxes for cigarettes they bought through the mail or over the Internet.
One of them, Cleo Bell of Adams, doesn't think the state cigarette tax is a fair tax. "We are already taxed to death on cigarettes," he said.
The 74-year-old buys cigarettes four cartons at a time through the mail by calling an 800 number.
The seller didn't collect the state cigarette tax of 64 cents a pack, nor the sales tax, but the law requires Bell to report those purchases and pay those taxes.
But now the state is collecting them, based on reports from the seller.
In July the state sent letters to 112 people who owed a total of $175,000. State tax commissioner Doug Ewald says about $100,000 has been paid so far.
On Aug. 16, 406 Nebraskans who owed more than $100 in back cigarette taxes were sent state letters. By the middle of last week, about $40,000 had been paid of the $190,000 those people owe, Ewald said.
Responding to one of the letters, estate representatives for one of the cigarette buyers sent in a copy of his death certificate. Ewald said the listed cause of death was lung cancer.
Bell said he's hoping to file a class-action suit against the tax, and he said the state collection efforts were unfair to smokers.
Nebraska doesn't go to such lengths to collect the sales tax owed by people who buy other products through the mail, he said.
Federal law requires those who sell and ship cigarettes into states to report those sales to the states.
But there's no such requirement for other sales, so states don't have the same database for such collection efforts, Ewald said.
It doesn't cost much to collect the cigarette tax from individuals, he said, because the sales information comes free from the sellers.
"Just pennies for every dollar collected," Ewald said.
'Nuff said....
Can't wait to find out what you think about Pit Bull's, drivers of SUV's, gun owner's, etc.
Nuff said....
Exactly!
How does a cigarette smoker get to 74 years of age? I thought that stuff killed you dead.
This is an action taken by other state governments as well.
Hope you don’t do any business on ebay, amazon, etc, etc.
They’ll be hitting the users of these services up next, you know, for the tax you didn’t report.
Hope you support that as well.
Anything else would just make you a hypocrite, right?
Karma sucks, as do smokers.
They should just cross the border to another state, to buy their cigarettes, the same way Kansans tag their vehicles in other states to evade paying personal property tax.
I have seen a lot of that over time. Not sure it would be worth a long drive, but if its 20 minutes to the res for cheap smokes...
Anyone who leaves a paper trail while doing such purchases is being dumb. There are ways to buy things without providing indentification to the seller. Its a required skill in the modern world.
Do your parents know you're using their computer again?
So make them illegal.
Or how Washington state residents register their cars in Oregon to avoid high plate costs.
When I moved from California to Seattle, I had to register my LeBaron convertible in Washington. The car was several years old. They added to the cost of the tags what the sales tax on my car would have been if I had bought it new in Washington state. Tags that first year cost me over five hundred dollars.
Tax is sin, ‘nuff said!
lol
Have you reorted all your internet sales/purchases to the proper authorities yet, comrade?
Better get on that.
reorted-reported
See post #6
Really?
Nice to meet a perfect person.
The smoke gnatsi is at it again.
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