Well, it is in the title of the agency
Darn revenuers.
Paul Helmke is upset ATF is going after more T than F. Apparently, they’re cracking down on cigarette smuggling from low tax states to high tax states.
21 Responses to “Well, it is in the title of the agency”
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August 11th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Very telling.
He is upset with ATFE while the Democrats hold majorities in the House and Senate and while a high-octane socialist regime inhabits the White House.
The anti-civil rights movement is dying and they know it.
August 11th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Interstate smuggling?
You mean they’re actually expending effort on a constitutionally-enumerated function of the federal government?
I… I’m feeling a little faint, here.
August 11th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Is it smuggling or is it simple tax evasion?
August 11th, 2010 at 9:48 am
When I lived in West Virginia for a summer (~7 years ago), I knew a man who was from the area but had moved to NYC. He visited every two weeks for the purpose of smuggling cigarettes from WVA to NYC.
Said individual was busted and sentenced to 18 months in prison for smuggling cigarettes!! It blew my mind at the time, but I’ve since come to realize that dodging taxes is the most egregious infraction possible in the eyes of the gov’t.
August 11th, 2010 at 9:58 am
As I do not smoke, how much money can you save per carton? For that matter, how expense are cigs anyway?
August 11th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Hmmm, could it be that the people with the cig.s dont shoot back like the people with the guns? Hard to shoot at somonme with a cigerette. This is funny tho, wonder hoow many of them have figured out about military retirees biuying them in the commisary and selling them with a HUGE profit margin. They do it with liquer too. Good luck with all that.
August 11th, 2010 at 10:00 am
It might seem minor, but if you let the surfs get away with the little things, soon they might start getting really brazen and start doing other things like taking homemade beer out of their homes.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-08-09-homebrew09_ST_N.htm?csp=hf
August 11th, 2010 at 10:01 am
At the time, the man I knew told me they were going for $8+ per pack in NYC, and this was around 7 years ago. You could get them in WVA for <$3/pack, sell for $5-6/pack, and make a nice profit apparently.
August 11th, 2010 at 10:28 am
You said it, Freiheit.
Why is the ATFE — a federal agency — concerned with high state cigarette taxes? Isn’t enforcement of state taxes the job of the state tax agencies?
It’s New York’s problem if people want to buy cheaper cigarettes in Pennsylvania or Vermont and bring them back home to the Bronx. The only time the ATFE would have a legitimate excuse for getting involved would be if someone was smuggling in cigs from Canada — unlikely, since Canada’s cigarette taxes are even higher.
August 11th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Holly – Crossing a state line involves F troop.
August 11th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Here’s the taxes per state.
So with a u-haul truck, you could buy in a state that charges 30 cents and sell someplace like New York City where the tax is listed at $4.30.
Regarding smuggling, when Maryland raised their taxes, they also change their smuggling laws. Get caught with more than two packs (forty cigarettes from out of state) and it’s a felony. The old law let you import, duty free, up to two cartons.
August 11th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Under cutting is hilarious. The same thing occurs with gasoline. You see it becomes a federal matter when you cross state lines doing something illegal. The fbi does not consider it prestigious enough so they pass it over to the batfu. I cannot wait until california legalizes weed. They think that selling weed for 80 a g is where they will make tax money. Problem is primo goes for 20-25 a g on the street. Picture taking your primo and selling it for 50 to unscrupulous but legal sellers who collect an additional 30 in pure profit at the time of sale. An extremely lucrative market. If you keep it in california the batfu cannot get involved because it does not cross state lines. The Dea does not have time for small time growers.
August 11th, 2010 at 10:55 am
I think the tax was $2 in New York state plus an extra $2 for NYC. It looks like the state has upped the tax, so it may be a total of $6.30 in NYC
I quit smoking back when they were $2.25/pack total.
August 11th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
As I do not smoke, how much money can you save per carton? For that matter, how expense are cigs anyway?
Marlboro wants $.80 per pack out the factory. In DuPage County I buy them for $5.00 a pack, in Cook County outside Chicago $7.75 a pack, in Chicago $8.50 a pack. About half the difference is taxes and the other half distributor/retailer.
If you want to be serious about cigarette smuggling … you have to be a government or a very well-established and powerful mob.
Again using Marlboro as an example, Phillip Morris recognizes only eight first-point distributors worldwide. Sells only to them direct from the factory. If you want to divert one of their shipping containers, be the kind of person who does not simply disappear one day. And I don’t mean voluntarily.
August 11th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Side effect of their crackdown is that the guys here with me in Iraq and Afghanistan can’t get shipped smokes.
Thanks for thinking that out Fed Gov. Thanks. Really, I mean it, you sons of whores. Way to fuck over the troops, just that little bit more.
Trying to find a link to the AP story.
August 11th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Stars and stripes Epaper, date 11 August 2010, bottom right of the front page. Having a hell of a time finding a direct link.
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=5Tn1Kc07k4B0&PBID=5ccc4e85-6771-4e10-9cc9-8bc41931e6aa&skip=
August 11th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
In NY, if you buy from the injuns, no tax. For now.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Illinois has made a deal with the Indian tribe, for quite a long time, to have shipments to Illinois residents reported. So Illinois residents get bills from the Illinois Department of Revenue for unpaid Illinois cigarette tax.
August 11th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Here they just buy them from the indian reservations here.
I never got into smoking. I used to have a bad reaction to cigarette smoke as a child. Still all the taxes anger me. Let smokers smoke.
August 11th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Shawn how else would the politicians pay for their coke habit?
August 12th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Sounds like more of the same thing we had in the Nashville area a couple of years back when TN hiked up the state tax on smokes and KY didn’t. They actually had TN state police monitoring I-65 for cars and trucks that would cross into KY and back in a short amount of time, pull them over, and bust them for tax evasion. Think they kept it up for 6 months to a year before they decided they had gotten the message across.