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CLOUDY Temp: 43 °F Wind: SSW at 4 mph Saturday, December 21, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend December 6, 2002 Since you asked Internet tobacco sales are taxable An article in the paper a while back sparked a huge debate in our office. Is it illegal to buy cigarettes on the Internet? Does this apply to individual consumers? Are you supposed to keep a list of things you buy? What about the privacy issue? — Merrill D., Medford Internet cigarettes must be a hot topic these days, Merrill. We typed "buy Internet cigarettes" into the search window of our Web browser and came up with 131,000 hits. We took your questions to Kevin Neely, at the Oregon Attorney General’s Office, who said, "It’s legal to buy cigarettes over the Internet. But if you buy on the Net, you must pay local excise taxes. It’s tax evasion if you don’t." Neely said Oregon and other states that have raised their tobacco taxes dramatically lose "tens of millions" of dollars annually to out-of-state tobacco sellers. Neely noted that interstate cig-sellers are required to report the names of all buyers to their respective state governments. The Oregon Department of Revenue could — at least in theory — send you a bill for the unpaid taxes. In practice, many tobacco sellers fail to report their sales information, Neely said. Neely said it’s unlikely Oregon would go after individual smokers for the $1.28 tax on each pack of smokes they buy from some Indian reservation in New York, but the state intends to recover lost tobacco-tax revenue by going after tobacco sellers who use the Internet. To that end, the Legislature created a Tobacco Tax Compliance Task Force during its last session to explore ways to collect the lost tax revenue. So let your conscience be your guide, Merrill. Send questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by e-mail to [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S