Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Cigarette taxes and smuggling

Wow! Reading the few posts about this in the B717doc thread, I thought this would be interesting.

Seems some of the states are WAY out there on the tax and smuggling issue. While I am currently a non smoker.. (quit 3 times, good for over 10 years now) I think that some of these laws are quit unjust.

Reading about Michigans laws, it appears the have a zero tolerance for tobacco products that don't have the state stamp. Couldn't find a 'personal use' limit, and they even had tax forms for the consumer to pay the per cigarette tax. Even paying the tax wouldn't exempt you from other fines and penalties for having contraband cigarettes!
New York stae has a tax that is over $5 a pack. This equates to the average smoker paying over $2,000 a year in taxes!

Let the discussion begin!

later, Tom.

yeah in jersey people would go to delaware for pretty much everything because the dont have sales tax. Especially cigarettes. Never heard of anyone ever getting searched or busted for it though. Now delaware raised their cigarette taxes and theres no point in paying $4 to cross the bridge.

Here in the U.K. the average price of a pack of 20 smokes is £6-13 ($9-33). The crazy thing is we can get a day trip over to Belgium via the Eurotunnel and buy the same smokes for £3-95 (($6-00).
Even with the cost of petrol for the bike and the day ticket for the train it works out a lot cheaper to go over to France, ride up to Belgium, buy the allowed limit (3200 smokes)and then ride back. Hand rolling tobacco is less than half the price in Belgium to what we pay in the U.K. so I go over 3 times a year and stock up !!!

CT smokes cost around $8 a pack due to the taxes. The Native American tribes to the west in NY sell mail order smokes for a whole lot less. The CT revenuers drove over to one of the reservations and demanded their CT customer list. The Indians told 'em to go pound sand, as they're on sovereign ground.

Indians - 1
Revenuers - 0

I keep hearing horror stories of the CT Nazi Tax Party busting "foreign" cigarette buyers, so I'm a little paranoid about it. They already took me off for $35,000 in sales tax a few years ago for buying parts & tires out of state. The auditor showed up in a brand new 2006 Mercedes station wagon. I was driving a '95 mini van. If that were from a movie, it might be funny. It isn't & it wasn't.

Fun facts, #6,812 - Some elected dope in either the US Senate or House had a brilliant idea - let's force Fed Ex & UPS to collect the cigarette taxes at the door during delivery. I s--- you not. Thank God we don't get all the government we're paying for...

I thought I'd heard that in some states you can buy all the cigs you want on the reservation, ya just can't take them off there legally! Talk about chain smoking!

later, Tom.

It will be 8 years next week with no smoke in my lungs. Now I just have to lose the 75 lbs I gained since then!

There is a reason John Hancock is considered a hero.

Great article by Walter Williams:
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3646

Interfering do-gooders never learn from their mistakes, because 'nanny knows best' and therefore CANNOT make mistakes, especially when they know not of which they speak