Jump to full article: NewsOK, 2009-10-18
Author: RANDY ELLIS
Intro: The Oklahoma Tax Commission is missing out on more than $1 million a month in tax collections by refusing to strongly enforce state tobacco tax laws, an Oklahoma City wholesaler has alleged.
"Legitimate distributors are being forced out of business," said tobacco wholesaler Alan Beck, who operates a wholesale business at 2305 S Agnew Ave.
Beck said he has complained to Tax Commission officials for more than four years about the "blatantly illegal" sale of untaxed tobacco products by a few dishonest Oklahoma wholesale operators.
Beck said he has repeatedly provided the Tax Commission with the names of businesses committing tax fraud, explained how their schemes work and told authorities how tax auditors can document the illegal conduct. . . .
A northeastern Oklahoma wholesaler said he sometimes wonders if certain illegal wholesalers are being protected.
Beck said he is aware of one large wholesaler who had his license revoked but said a relative just took over the operation.
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Dishonest wholesalers, however, are buying cigarettes from importers and other sources, then selling the unstamped cigarettes to retailers for cash at discount prices, he said. The retailers then sell the unstamped packs to regular customers or to customers who come in at night or on weekends when store owners don't think enforcement officers are working, he said.
Welch said enforcement officers sometimes work on nights and weekends to try to thwart such schemes and have an array of other investigative techniques they also use.
Beck said fraud is even more rampant on other tobacco products such as cigars, snuff and chewing tobacco because there is no tax stamp system for those products to help monitor compliance.
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