[Gee ... her parents didn't raise any dummy.]


"N.J. getting tough on smokers who try to avoid tobacco tax
Monday, November 18, 2002

By PETER POCHNA
Staff Writer


Mohammed Chowdhury wanted some cheap smokes. So when he came across a tobacco shop flier urging customers to "Stop Paying High Cigarette Taxes!" he seized the opportunity.

The restaurant line cook from Hackensack phoned the American Smokeshop on a Native American reservation in Irving, N.Y., ordered a bunch of bargain-brand Seneca cigarettes, and had them delivered to his door.

Then the police showed up.
The Hackensack officers were investigating a case unrelated to Chowdhury when they noticed the cigarettes. They called the New Jersey Treasury Department, and Chowdhury was eventually summoned to Municipal Court, where a judge fined him $250 last month for possessing four cartons of contraband cigarettes.

"I was surprised," Chowdhury said. "I didn't know what I was doing was illegal."

It doesn't make sense, but I'm not going to do it again," he said.

Joan Troisi, a Rochelle Park Realtor and smoker, had a different take. She said she may start pulling the cellophane from her untaxed cigarette packs, thereby making it hard for investigators to know whether the pack was ever marked with a New Jersey tax stamp."

http://www.bergen.com/page.php?level_3_id=1&page=5592454"

quote:

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"I don't know how many people know it or not, but if you buy cigarettes from another state, you still have to pay your state's tax," Jayson said. "If you are not, you are breaking the law."

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That's pure BS!!! They cannot be singling out one single commodity like that. All states have different tax rates and interstate commerce flourishes as consumers try to avoid excessive taxes. Many New Yorkers drive to Jersey in droves to buy clothing because it's not taxed there as opposed to back home, saving $75 on a $1000 purchase, helping Jersey markets prosper. Maybe NY should set up road blocks, asking for receipts?

I wish you were right Lock - but there is federal law regarding taxes on cigarettes from other states. 1954 jenkins Act. It is about tobacco products only.

I'm not sure if it is under that or just state law, but I believe that there is a permissible level of 2 cartons per person that can be bought legally in one state and brought into another.

The 1954 Jenkins Act ... really only does one thing regarding consumer purchases, it requires sellers of cigarettes to notify the buyers home state of the sale if they shipped out of state. It's been pulled out of cold storage now by the states to get information from internet mail order vendors.
It only applies to interstate shipments, via mail, or some shipping carrier ... not on site purchases.

Each state makes the determination as to how many packs of cigarettes you can have in your possession without their tax stamp on them. A greater number than allowed and you would have to prove you paid their department of revenue their state tax on them also, otherwise you would be liable for penalties. It doesn't matter where you purchased them, in another state, Indian reservation or out of the country or how ... by mail or on site purchase. If they don't have their state tax stamp ... that is all that counts.

Some states have a stickem paper on bottom of wrapper, others just an ink stamp. If you buy from out of the country or Indian reservations they have no tax stamp on them. You would have to check with your state, to see what the law is for possession and taxation of cigarettes without their tax stamp ... it varies.

1954 Jenkins Act


Sec. 376. Reports to State tobacco tax administrator

(a) Contents
Any person who sells or transfers for profit cigarettes in interstate commerce, whereby such cigarettes are shipped into a State taxing the sale or use of cigarettes, to other than a distributor licensed by or located in such State, or who advertises or offers cigarettes for such a sale or transfer and shipment, shall -

(1) first file with the tobacco tax administrator of the State
into which such shipment is made or in which such advertisement
or offer is disseminated a statement setting forth his name and
trade name (if any), and the address of his principal place of
business and of any other place of business; and
(2) not later than the 10th day of each calendar month, file
with the tobacco tax administrator of the State into which such
shipment is made, a memorandum or a copy of the invoice covering
each and every shipment of cigarettes made during the previous
calendar month into such State; the memorandum or invoice in each
case to include the name and address of the person to whom the
shipment was made, the brand, and the quantity thereof.
(b) Presumptive evidence
The fact that any person ships or delivers for shipment any cigarettes shall, if such shipment is into a State in which such person has filed a statement with the tobacco tax administrator under subsection (a)(1) of this section, be presumptive evidence
(1) that such cigarettes were sold, or transferred for profit, by such person, and (2) that such sale or transfer was to other than a distributor licensed by or located in such State.


Sec. 377. Penalties


Whoever violates any provision of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined not more than $1,000, or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both.



[This message has been edited by John L (edited 11-25-2002).]

I think it's time--past time--for a resurgence in the popularity of those wonderfully elegant hinged cigarette cases, such as I myself use...(thanks, Charlie).

Spinn!
Since we roll our own, I found (on Ebay a year ago), these wonderful cigarette cases, hard plastic, in all colors to match all of my outfits! I love them! And! No gross warnings on them! heh!