Hi Gavin - my partner and I had one of our many fights - indeed the "use
tax" was on our sales tax form (we have a resale permit) I said, well, this
being a rather genteel list - I won't repeat exactly what I said in
reference to the  bureaucrats ever more demanding - but I - and I'm sure -
most people would have ignored it. My partner insisted on paying it.

How could they ever find out? To me that was $500 down the rat hole. What
was even more incredulous - and I don't have this story completely right -
but the state of NY is trying to tax people of NJ some kind of tax because
they are presumed to have gone there. I know I don't have the complete story
and await the inevitable corrections but the gist of it was complete
audacity on the govt of NY. Or NYC.

It will be interesting to see the affects of the Internet on our society - I
do not believe anyone can see the true implications yet. It does empower the
individual and I foresee a difficult time enforcing this tax scheme if it
passes (it just barely passed the assembly I heard; it awaits Senate and
governor signing? )
Bill

William L. Brandt
Sacramento, CA USA
.
----- Original Message -----
From: Gavin Scott <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2000 6:29 PM
Subject: Re: California and sales tax


> Bill writes:
> > I have been making it a point of shopping out of state for relatively
big
> > ticket items.
> >
> > We bought our 917LX used from a company in Washington who (rightfully)
> > didn't charge us sales tax.
>
> That doesn't mean you don't now owe the money directly to the state of
> California.
>
> If you're a business then the California State Board of Equalization will
> very possibly get around to you (eventually) and you'll find that they
will
> make you pay that 8.something% use-tax on everything you ever bought for
the
> company from out of state.
>
> The state seems to have the right to charge you sales tax for in-state
> purchases (and they can require that the merchant collect and submit the
> money) and they can require you to pay the same amount as a "use" tax for
> things you buy from out of state that you didn't pay tax on there.
>
> The only question is whether they can require someone outside of their
> jurisdiction to collect that tax for them, which seems unreasonable to me
> unless *that* state has some kind of reciprocal agreement with California
> that they will make their businesses collect tax for California if
> California will make its businesses collect tax for them.
>
> Obviously getting the remote merchant to collect the tax is easier for
them
> than auditing every person in the state to try to collect the use tax
which
> virtually nobody pays today (though they seem pretty good about getting it
> from businesses).
>
> Didn't the California State and/or Federal tax forms recently acquire a
box
> for you to report the amount of purchases you made via the Internet or
> something like that?
>
> G.
>