Posted on 05/23/2011 7:38:44 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen
Like to shop on the Internet? Do you head to Delaware to avoid sales taxes? Next year’s Pennsylvania income tax forms will test your honesty.
Next year, Pennsylvania’s tax forms will add a “use tax” line requiring you to declare any sales tax you may owe for items purchased from out-of-state retailers.
Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser says you will have to fill in that line. While he admits that for most individual taxpayers, if you fib by entering zero, you’re not likely to get caught, he still thinks the state will collect some money
(Excerpt) Read more at philadelphia.cbslocal.com ...
But many places that sell clothing and ship it to Pennsylvania still charge a standard rate of sales tax and remit simply because it is too difficult for them to keep track of 50 different state tax laws on what is and isn't exempt.
I think food is the most common exemption, covering 30 or so states. Clothing is exempt in another dozen or so states.
The tax grabbers in Harrisburg should be careful what they wish for. A lot of us in the southwest corner of the state shop in West Virginia or Ohio, but not Delaware.
They have no way to track it.
**You get audited. In your letter, they say “bring your credit card statements.”**
I throw away my credit card statements after I pay the bill off every month.
If you are a TEA Party member, or otherwise annoying to the political establishment, expect to be audited on that item.
Atlas Shrugged:
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after POWER and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with.
Audit away. Without IP information, they cannot prove your physical locality at the point of purchase. You could have been visiting a friend out of state and used their PC for the purchase.
Is there a law that requires us to keep credit card statements?
I admire your honesty but doubt that most people in New York are honest. Just look at the crooks they routinely elect.
As for the question of WayneS, there really isn't a question of constitutionality here. If I consume a meal at a McDonald's on the New York Thruway, I pay New York taxes even if I'm from Delaware. Even if it is take-out. It doesn't matter because it is a ready-to-eat product subject to the jurisdiction in which it is sold. If, on the other hand, I drive over to Delaware from Pennsylvania and buy a car with the intention of garaging and licensing it in Pennsylvania, our Commonwealth can rightfully claim a use tax under the law. I may not like it, but that's the way it works. If I want to avoid it, I can either move to Delaware, which is perfectly legal, or register and license it under the name of a friend in Delaware, which is considered illegal tax evasion.
That's why, applying the same logic, I should be able to enter a minus amount on this line for internet sales of clothing shipped in from another state on which sales tax is charged.
We have a winner!
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt."
Really...I guess in theory, taxes are supposed to be applied because the government is offering some service, or providing some key component of a transaction. but what are they providing in the case of an online purchase? A state address?
If you put down $0 you go onto the automatic audit list.
True Christians will have to bite the bullet and be truthful.
That used to be on the Ohio forms but I don’t remember seeing it there this year.I don’t shop online at all all of those Amazon boxes came from a friend....
Don’t know if it still does, but I ran into that damnable tax theft back in the late 70’s when I was moved by my company from Delaware to upstate NY. I had a year-old car and in transferring the title got slammed with the NY/County tax rate of 7% of the full value. Delaware had taxed me with a 2% “Luxury Tax” - cars, boats, planes, jewelry, real estate, basically anything over $1000. NY would not credit me with that, as they didn’t consider it a ‘sales’ tax.
Company moved me down to PA in the mid 90’s, and I saved money on all types of taxes, plus my car insurance got cut by 1/3. Time to fire Dan Meuser - it ain’t your money, Dan!
ping
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