Internet cigarette buyers get warnings they could be billed
Jump to full article: Milwaukee (WI) Journal-Sentinel, 2008-05-10
Author: STEVEN WALTERS
Intro: State Revenue Department officials have sent more than 1,000 letters this year to Wisconsin smokers who bought cigarettes from Internet vendors, telling them to either stop buying them that way or pay the $1.77-per-pack state tax that took effect Jan. 1.
"You have been reported to DOR as a person who recently purchased cigarettes where the cigarette use taxes and sales taxes . . . due may not have been paid," the warning letter says.
It lays the groundwork for those smokers to be billed if their names show up as repeat buyers from Internet vendors. . . .
some Wisconsin residents got an ad in the mail last week from an online vendor associated with the Seneca Indian Nation, offering a 10-pack carton of Skydancer cigarettes over the Internet for $12.99 - about $5 less than the Wisconsin taxes owed on it.
Another Internet cigarette vendor, smokin4free.com, tells potential customers it won't cooperate with federal or state tax collectors under any circumstances: "IMPORTANT: We have never and do not report any information about our customers to any authorities. We guarantee your safety while shopping with us and will uphold our promise in keeping your information 100% confidential."
Asked about such ads, Ervin said his agency is quietly doing all it can to work with Internet vendors, retailers and Indian tribes that sell cigarettes, and Wisconsin smokers who are avoiding the $1.77-per-pack tax. . . .
At www.NoCigTax.com, a site belonging to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., toll-free phone numbers appear with urgings to call lawmakers to speak out against rising cigarette taxes.
A supervisor reached by phone who identified himself as Hyson Blitz said callers to NoCigTax.com are asked their ZIP codes so they can be given the names and contact information for their local legislators.
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