New York smokes out cigarette tax cheats

[AmericasTeam]

New York -- About 3,700 New Yorkers who thought they had avoided a hefty $3-a- pack tax by buying their cigarettes online have found that the city has smoked them out.

New York City's Department of Finance has sent out thousands of letters to New York customers of Internet cigarette vendors, asking for a total of $1. 3 million in lost taxes. The city gleaned the names and addresses from a Virginia lawsuit against one site, cigs4cheap.com, which went out of business. Some people owe as much as $10,000.

"I think we'll get it all," said a Finance Department spokeswoman, Joanna Perlman. "We're very good at collections. We have lots of tools we can use, including liens on people's bank accounts and houses."

Link

The article also mentions that cigs cost $7 a pack in NY. Thats just crazy.

 

[Goosemaster]

:Q

 

[Feldenak]

*Obligatory smokers deserve it statement*

 

[slick230]

What's the difference if the bought their coffin nails online or drove to Virginia with a U-Haul and came back with it full of cartons? Would NY still try to come after them in the second scenario? That's pretty fvcking retarded.

 

[amol]

good

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: AmericasTeam
The article also mentions that cigs cost $7 a pack in NY. Thats just crazy.

Not really, should be more.

 

[virtuamike]

Not good. Can you imagine the legal precedence this sets for other internet sales?

Anyone with law knowledge in here to provide some insight? Sounds to me like the NY Dept of Finance is just bullying people into paying up.

 

[BigFatCow]

Originally posted by: AmericasTeam
The article also mentions that cigs cost $7 a pack in NY. Thats just crazy.

Damn, i dont smoke but i know you can get a pack here for $3.

 

[Riceball]

The article also mentions that cigs cost $7 a pack in NY. Thats just crazy.

Its 5 bucks a pack in northern cali.

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: virtuamike
Not good. Can you imagine the legal precedence this sets for other internet sales?

Anyone with law knowledge in here to provide some insight? Sounds to me like the NY Dept of Finance is just bullying people into paying up.

Yeah as unsympathetic as I am to smokers, they should not be forced to pay this ridiculous tax. There was no warning of it prior to it at all it seems..

 

[quakefiend420]

Originally posted by: virtuamike
Not good. Can you imagine the legal precedence this sets for other internet sales?

Anyone with law knowledge in here to provide some insight? Sounds to me like the NY Dept of Finance is just bullying people into paying up.

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

Originally posted by: CheapArse

Originally posted by: AmericasTeam
The article also mentions that cigs cost $7 a pack in NY. Thats just crazy.

Not really, should be more.

Because, of course, levying taxes to enforce your own version of morality is the best way to do things. :disgust:

This is about one thing: money. The City of New York makes a sh!tload off the taxes on tobacco - they more than double the price of a pack there just raking money of off smokers. And the non-smokers on their moral pedastals will let it happen, and even enourage it. Although a smoker can hardly find a place indoors for a cigarette anymore, non-smokers still insist on making every bar and restaurant completely smoke-free - seperate sections aren't enough anymore. If the city put the same taxes on alcohol (a known poison), you can bet the reaction to this would be a hell of a lot different.

This has, quite honestly, become ridiculous. I've been a smoker for the past 2.5 years (quit very recently, last cig was 6 days ago after weening myself down over a month), and I'll be the first to admit that its bad for you and annoying to others in crowded public places. But people do things every day that are bad for them... as I've said before in other smoking posts, you could get on the same soapbox in Wendy's and yell at everyone for clogging their arteries and not going to Subway instead. No one likes to have someone else's idea of morality imposed on them.

As for bothering others, this is why we have "no smoking" sections. Even as a smoker, there were times I didn't want to be around cigarettes, and I always had that option. And come on, no one ever complains about smoking in a bar... hell, when Delaware enacted a strict no indoor smoking policy, it absolutely killed the bars in the state.

 

[slick230]

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix

Originally posted by: CheapArse

Originally posted by: AmericasTeam
The article also mentions that cigs cost $7 a pack in NY. Thats just crazy.

Not really, should be more.

Because, of course, levying taxes to enforce your own version of morality is the best way to do things. :disgust:

This is about one thing: money. The City of New York makes a sh!tload off the taxes on tobacco - they more than double the price of a pack there just raking money of off smokers. And the non-smokers on their moral pedastals will let it happen, and even enourage it. Although a smoker can hardly find a place indoors for a cigarette anymore, non-smokers still insist on making every bar and restaurant completely smoke-free - seperate sections aren't enough anymore. If the city put the same taxes on alcohol (a known poison), you can bet the reaction to this would be a hell of a lot different.

This has, quite honestly, become ridiculous. I've been a smoker for the past 2.5 years (quit very recently, last cig was 6 days ago after weening myself down over a month), and I'll be the first to admit that its bad for you and annoying to others in crowded public places. But people do things every day that are bad for them... as I've said before in other smoking posts, you could get on the same soapbox in Wendy's and yell at everyone for clogging their arteries and not going to Subway instead. No one likes to have someone else's idea of morality imposed on them.

As for bothering others, this is why we have "no smoking" sections. Even as a smoker, there were times I didn't want to be around cigarettes, and I always had that option. And come on, no one ever complains about smoking in a bar... hell, when Delaware enacted a strict no indoor smoking policy, it absolutely killed the bars in the state.

But who's gonna stand up for the childrens????? :Q

 

[quakefiend420]

btw oklahoma has a new tobacco tax...black and milds that i used to pay 2 bux a pack for are now 3 and sometmes 3.50...trying to quit now...i've cut back to a pack every couple of days rather than 2 packs a day though..so i'm getting there

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: slick230
What's the difference if the bought their coffin nails online or drove to Virginia with a U-Haul and came back with it full of cartons? Would NY still try to come after them in the second scenario?

It would be the same thing.

Actually, this is no different than people who don't pay "use tax" on Internet purchases. Every state that has a sales tax also has a "use tax" which applies to items bought from out-of-state which had no state sales tax charged. More and more states are putting a line item on their income tax forms for people to report the "use tax".

 

[spaceman]

ahh the time is soon to come where cigarettes will be a black market cash cow.

 

[Amused]

To those who think this is "good":

Wait until they target you nerds for your Newegg purchases.

No one cries until it's their bull getting gored.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: ncircle
ahh the time is soon to come where cigarettes will be a black market cash cow.

Yep. Pretty soon gangs will be killing each other over tobacco like they are over drugs, and once did over alcohol.

 

[agnitrate]

How does the government have any right to tax internet purchases unless the vendor was in the same state as the buyer?

-silver

 

[Colt45]

It's $7-9 USD a pack here too.

But i get my smokes out of yugo or switzerland, pay tax, and it comes out to about $3 USD

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: agnitrate
How does the government have any right to tax internet purchases unless the vendor was in the same state as the buyer?

-silver

Read your state's laws. All states I know of say you must report your mail-order purchases and voluntarily pay sales tax.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Colt45
It's $7-9 USD a pack here too.

But i get my smokes out of yugo or switzerland, pay tax, and it comes out to about $3 USD

Yesmoke stopped shipping to the US. Someone started a thread about it a week or so ago.

 

[Colt45]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Colt45
It's $7-9 USD a pack here too.

But i get my smokes out of yugo or switzerland, pay tax, and it comes out to about $3 USD

Yesmoke stopped shipping to the US. Someone started a thread about it a week or so ago.

Hrmm. I wonder if they still ship here..
I haven't had to order from them for the last 6 months, because my father brought back a whole pile of smokes from yugo.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: agnitrate
How does the government have any right to tax internet purchases unless the vendor was in the same state as the buyer?

-silver

Read your state's laws. All states I know of say you must report your mail-order purchases and voluntarily pay sales tax.

Yep, if your state could get customer order information from internet vendors, they'd be thrilled.

 

[ZOXXO]

Originally posted by: ncircle
ahh the time is soon to come where cigarettes will be a black market cash cow.

They already are. Shipments cigarettes without a tax stamp meant for sale outside of the US are often diverted or go across the border only to come back and be sold to less than above board retailers and wholesalers.