 StepRCode WarriorPremium
join:2000-11-06
Elgin, IL | Use Tax Amnesty expires October 15 Is it worth it? Illinois is offering amnesty to people who voluntarily pay the use tax for 2004 ,2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 by October 15. The use tax is a 6.25% substitute for the sales tax which Amazon and other internet retailers do not collect. The State's offer is that if you pay now, it will waive penalty and interest for all the years you have not voluntarily paid.
The threat is that Illinois will win a lawsuit against Amazon, or subpoena its records to find out how much each Illinois resident spent with Amazon for those years. Or Illinois could cut a deal with Amazon as California did.
The statute of limitations on use tax is 6 years.
If you do not know the amount of purchases to pay your use tax, the Department of Revenue supposedly allows you to estimate it at roughly 0.5% of your adjusted gross income. But get this, "If we find that you owe additional tax, we may assess the additional tax plus applicable penalties and interest." and "Failure to pay all eligible taxes due to the State for a taxable period shall invalidate any amnesty granted." So what is the point of mailing in an estimated use tax.
It is almost worth gambling that Illinois never gets the stats from Amazon. |
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 JonPremium
join:2001-01-20
Lisle, IL | F**K Them.
That's all I have to say about that. |
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 djtim21It's all goodPremium
join:2003-12-22
Lake Villa, IL
 ·Comcast
| reply to StepR
said by StepR:The threat is that Illinois will win a lawsuit against Amazon.
Then let them come after me. Prove in the court of law first that this can even pass, then prove again that I owe this.
It would be years before even 60% of this illegal tax revenue even gets collected. By that time, The State of Illinois will have spent in lawyer fees, court costs, etc.. the same amount they set out to collect.
California gave into Amazon's demands on the taxing situation because it would cost them in jobs and other monies that businesses would earn by doing business in California.
For reasons like this one (and a few others) my wife and I have been looking to move to WI for the last year or so. I know WI has their own issues, but for the average person, it's a favorable environment.
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"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” - Edmund Burke |
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 nwrickertsand groperPremium,MVM
join:2004-09-04
Geneva, IL
kudos:7
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to StepR
I ignored that when filing this year's tax return. However, I did start keeping records so that I will know the amount for future years. Their estimate is way too high.
I'm not sure how getting Amazon information would affect this. Most of what I buy at Amazon is being shipped to out of state (gifts for relatives). And Illinois use tax does not apply to that. They would need shipping records, as well as sales records, to be able to work that out.
Some of my Internet purchases already include sales tax fees. I am not keeping records of that. I am only retaining records (mostly email receipts) for purchases that were shipped to an Illinois address (usually mine), and for which there was no sales tax on the bill.
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AT&T Uverse; Zyxel NBG334W router (behind the 2wire gateway); openSuSE 11.4; firefox 7.0 |
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 jester121Premium
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | reply to StepR
I return everything I buy from Amazon, and I defy the treasurer to prove otherwise. |
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I paid it when it showed up on my income tax form. Fortunately I make so little that the amount I paid was minimal using the "estimated" value.
But to expect me to go back to the full statue of limitation? Sure, I'll do it in a few years and send a check off, Illinois. BTW, my Dentist has not been paid for the xrays and cleaning I had done almost a year ago.
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The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
CPL:IA;ASEL/AMEL. CFI:ASE/AME; IA |
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JonPremium
join:2001-01-20
Lisle, IL Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| said by snipper_cr:I paid it when it showed up on my income tax form. Fortunately I make so little that the amount I paid was minimal using the "estimated" value.
But to expect me to go back to the full statue of limitation? Sure, I'll do it in a few years and send a check off, Illinois. BTW, my Dentist has not been paid for the xrays and cleaning I had done almost a year ago.
But why even pay the estimate? They say if they discover you owe more than you paid they're gonna come after you anyway with penalties and interest. That's not Amnesty!
So screw it, if you want it,IL, come get it. I'm not volunteering shit. You get enough money from me. |
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cubs4evaPremium
join:2004-04-29
Aurora, IL | reply to StepR
I'm not paying them anything. If the laws weren't caught up with reality, that's their problem. |
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 scoobyPremium
join:2001-05-01
Schaumburg, IL
kudos:1 | reply to StepR
They make enough money off us from sales tax and property tax. If they weren't throwing it away on pensions and other wasteful spending, they would have enough to go around.
From what I can tell, it is also illegal for Illinois to make us pay sales tax unless Amazon has affiliates or employees in the state of Illinois (which they no longer do).
In a 1992 decision, Quill v. North Dakota, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that retailers are exempt from collecting sales taxes in states where they have no physical presence, such as a store, office, or warehouse. (The legal term for this physical presence is "nexus.") Although the case dealt with a catalog mail-order company, the ruling has subsequently been applied to all remote sellers, including online retailers. The Court said that requiring these companies to comply with the varied sales tax rules and regulations of 45 states and some 7,500 different local taxing jurisdictions would burden interstate commerce.
»www.newrules.org/retail/rules/in···fairness
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"I want to legalize freedom" – Ron Paul |
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 insomniacOh YeahPremium
join:2002-09-22
Naperville, IL
·Comcast
 ·AT&T Midwest
| "retailers are exempt from collecting" does not equal "it is illegal for Illinois to make us pay."
The state's use tax is entirely legal. Enforcing payment, obviously, is an entirely different issue.
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If everything seems to be going well, you've obviously overlooked something. |
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