Posted: 1/1/2004 3:35:53 PM EDT
|
I used to smoke, quit and now I chew a little here and there. No lectures please from the puritans. I was used to paying 8.++ a can here in Seattle. I went back to Ohio on vacation and bought a can, $4.35. I was shocked! I got a full roll. I finally ran out and was ready to go buy some. I had heard people talking about 'The res' every since moving here, but had no clue. Cross the Pierce county line and BLAM! $3.40 a can. Hell, they had smokes from a buck a pack. Damn! I cant understand why anyone would pay regular prices when a 5 minute drive comes out to buy one, get 2 1/2 free! Only in Washington. |
| The big increase in tobacco tax that was voted into law recently has done one thing right.....it lowered the states revenue from the tax. As far as I'm concerned, the .gov can starve. But, that just means they'll shift the burden somewhere else to pay for the new entitlements that the tobacco tax was promised to deliver. |
I don't smoke and think it's a disgusting nasty habit. But I always vote no on that crap because I won't try to pay for the stuff I want by demonizing a group of people then after everybody hates them, taxing the sh!+ out of them. Them's NAZI type tactics. I told the gals at work who insist on coming outside and lighting up right next to me while I eating my lunch (there are 5 other tables and 20 other chairs, not 1 foot away from me) that from now on I'm voting for every tax increase on cigarettes because "you dumb bitches know I hate eating in a cloud of cigarette smoke". I lied of course but if they move away from me that's good enough to justify the lie in my book. |
And how does that process work? Is it illegal to buy things there and use them off premises? I saw streams of cars going and coming from there. I thought res, short for reservation. |
| You are supposed to pay the tax if you are not an Indian. Kinda like when you buy poducts thru the web from another state. Enforcement of this is a little difficult for mail order. Setting up road blocks outside the Rez is one way they could enforce the tobacco tax issue (like they do with fireworks before the 4th). Incidentally, to maximize tobacco profits, many tribes are now selling over the net...again making enforcement of the tax collection more difficult. Supposedly, another method is heading to Nevada a stocking up. All these methods conspire to allow the tobacco consumer in WA to thumb their noses at the stupid taxes. |
[ dippity dawg ] It appeared you weren't wearing your seatbelt [ /dippity dawg ] Didn't we discuss this before? I thought you weren't going to go down there because you were a law abiding, tax paying citizen? 
|
|
Now someone correct me if I am wrong.... I thought this state (or maybe another) was sueing the online retailers for a list of customers that purchased tobaco products. And what they were doing was, if there were any residents of that state, they sent a 'bill due' to collect the tax that wasn't paid? For some reason, I thought it was this state. Bascially, some of the online retailers complied w/out even going to court.... and some people received a nice bill for Christmas... some in the 100+ range. And if they took you to court, the charge woule be "TAX EVASION".... just like Mr. Capone (spelling). EDIT- The only way to get someones name of an online list is to do something like an auto purge. After the order ships and after XX days (to make sure it's the right stuff), the system purges the buyer, IP address (if collected) and most payment info. So all it is is a CC number and an amount that the retailer has collected (bascially, what ever shows on the bank statement)...and NO paypal since pay pal accounts are tracked by pay pal. Like how the gov does it w/ the background check for guns...expires in XX days. It's all about money.... the gov wants more and we want to pay less (sigh). |
|
There are a number of things that Washington is doing to try and either collect on the taxes, or stop the mail order trade in tobacco products. One is the contacting of major mail order suppliers. There is a federal law that requires tobacco dealers to provide certain cooperation to state tax agencies. The dealer has to keep the records, as the out of state name and address being on record for the sale are often necessary for them to avoid their own state tobacco tax. Another is by working with UPS, who gives them data on shipments into the state from specific retailers. There is a proposed law that would make it illegal to ship tobacco products by USPS, and would require an adult signature for every other method. By requiring the declaration of contents and adult signature they would be able to track shipments by way of the shipping company. They are getting pretty creative when it comes to bringing these out of state purchases into the tax revenues. Pays in this case because of both the 129% tobacco tax, and the 8.? sales tax. Other mail order is less attractive because only sales tax is involved, but they'll get to it eventually. |