Clever Colorado

[ERD50]

This Blog echos my thinking:

Do You Cheat On Your Taxes? - The Finance Buff

"We the People"

Actually, I feel a little differently. (shhhh), but I don't pay the use tax either (OK, we can talk out loud now). It isn;t because I can 'get away with it'. There are many areas where I can 'get away with it', but I don't.

I really do generally try to dot the i's and cross the t's when I do my taxes. But I have my limits. I hit it on this use tax for [-]two[/-] [-]three[/-] four reasons:

1) It is cumbersome for me to figure - I may make a single Amazon purchase for three different items, one charge, three vendors, one with B&M in IL that charges tax, two that don't - it's a pain to track all that. Not un-do-able, but a pain.

2) It'll end up being a small amount, most of the big purchases are from places with B&M in IL and they collect the tax, so we are talking a bunch of small transactions - so sue me if I get caught.

3) I get tried of feeling like a chump - even though it's wrong, I know that most people don't pay it either. Yep, that's rationalizing it, but as I say, I have my limits. I'm not going through all that effort to pay them a few more bucks when I know most others don't bother, and probably cheat in other ways to boot. My time is worth something.

4) If the head of the IRS can't comply with something as obvious and large as reporting foreign income, which comes in one neat, tidy year-end statement, I think I can claim 'ignorance' on this use tax too.

They need to find efficient ways to collect tax, this is just ridiculous.

-ERD50

 

[braumeister]

Is it reasonable to assume the seller should collect any required sales tax and forward it to the appropriate state authority?

Is it reasonable to assume that many sellers don't want to make their price look higher by showing the sales tax as a line item?

Is it reasonable to assume that if they hide the tax in the price (see above), they should be sending it to the tax office?

When I buy something at a B&M store, I don't have to think about the sales tax because the store takes care of it. When I buy something online, I should not have to worry about it either. Collecting sales taxes is simply part of the cost of doing business.

 

[samclem]

So, a practical question: For those who don't actually track the tax due on items bought over the internet, is it better to make up some precise-looking figure and put it on the form, or is it better to leave a big zero? I gotta think any figure is likely to draw less attention than a zero--but it's easier to claim ignorance if there's a blank or a zero there. Neither entry could be substantiated in an audit. If you put a figure, at least you could claim you estimated it through some means.

 

[Martha]

Is it reasonable to assume the seller should collect any required sales tax and forward it to the appropriate state authority?

Is it reasonable to assume that many sellers don't want to make their price look higher by showing the sales tax as a line item?

Is it reasonable to assume that if they hide the tax in the price (see above), they should be sending it to the tax office?

When I buy something at a B&M store, I don't have to think about the sales tax because the store takes care of it. When I buy something online, I should not have to worry about it either. Collecting sales taxes is simply part of the cost of doing business.

Might be reasonable, but it isn't the law. Until congress changes the law the business must have a nexus with the state before it has to collect and pay taxes.

It maybe be unreasonable for small businesses. There are hundreds of sales tax variations throughout the nation.