Michigan chases online smokers
p2pnet.net News:- Michigan’s $2-per-pack cigarette tax is the third-highest in the US and has driven smokers to look for cheaper supplies via the Net.
Now they’re getting bills for their online smokes, says the Detroit Free Press.
“Internet and mail-order cigarette sales nationwide will have jumped from $750 million in 2001 to a projected $5 billion in 2005, according to one study’s estimates,” says the story. “That will cost states $1.4 billion in taxes this year.”
It goes on that a Canton woman who bought her cigarettes in bulk got a state bill for $2,500 and that Michigan can go back up to four years.
“In a bold push to catch tax scofflaws, the state Treasury Department has subpoenaed the online retailers in other states to get the names, addresses and purchase records of Michiganders who bought cigarettes from them,” says the Free Press. “In virtually all cases, such sales do not include the cigarette tax that must be paid to the state, regardless of who the seller is or how much is purchased.
“So far, the sweep has resulted in letters sent to 533 people the state says bought from just the one online seller.”
New York City recently sent letters to more than 2,600 city residents who bought cigarettes online, demanding that they pay back taxes or face interest and penalties up to $200 per carton, the report states, adding:
“New York state also began squeezing local post offices and private mail carriers to stop delivering cigarettes purchased online.
“MasterCard recently started prohibiting purchases from some Internet tobacco sites to customers in New York and California and is reviewing whether it can do the same in other states.”
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See:-
via the Net – State nails smokers who didn’t pay taxes, Detroit Free Press, February 18, 2005
February 18th, 2005 at 7:26 pm
Come on, people, you have to make your choice. Do you want the give cartels more power to extort money from you? If you do, keep voting Republican. If you want state and federal governments to have more power over you, then you will need to vote Democrat. These are your choices, or so you are told and seem to believe. Some of us, however, prefer to live our lives in freedom and not be extorted by either of these two.
Those of us who want to be free don’t vote the “lessor of two evils.” We pick from political parties that have not been corrupted as much as the two mainstream parties. Two of these parties are the Libertarians http://www.lp.org and the Constitutionalist http://www.constitutionparty.com
February 18th, 2005 at 7:31 pm
“interest and penalties up to $200 per carton” ? Have these guys been hanging around with the RIAA? Why is it when some white collar criminal steals ten million dollars and gets caught their fine is $500,000 but when some poor slob cheats on their cigarette tax the fine is 10 times what the tax would have been? Could it be that rich people control how laws are written and enforced? Gee, I wonder….