http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/02/03/state_chases_sales_taxes_in_nh/
In Florida, if you fly an airplane there which you have purchased within the last 6 months, you are liable for the difference between the sales tax you paid in your home state, and the Florida sales tax of 6%.
Another blatant example of how taxation is simply the State saying "You have money! Therefore you should give it to us!"
Worst case the places up in NH become "independent" and unless it goes to SCOTUS MA can't do jack shit. I have my friends in MA ship large cost items to me in NH and then they can pick them up and it's up to them to report it on their taxes. I also let them ship ammo to me and pick it up in NH. As long as what I'm doing is legal by NH and federal regulations... I leave it up to them to ensure they are not violating MA laws.
First Maine with their income tax, now Mass with their sales tax.
When is our state going to start protecting its citizens?
It is not up to the business to collect the tax. It is up to the MA resident to fill in the amount on their MA state income tax form that they paid for out of state purchases and pay the 5% tax on that amount. The line has been on the form forever.
If MA wins this case, every retail store in the state with a NH operation will close up rather than deal with the BS.
Another reason to buy things in CASH when a MA resident buying in NH.
Sadly, I bet they lose this case and will force the company to comply, since the company has 25 stores in Mass. If the company had real balls, if they lost the case, they'd shut down every shop in MA and open new ones in NH, then continue to send advertisements for their services to the MA residents. As long as the company has a presence in Mass, the Mass govt can get them. Once they're out of the state, they're (relatively) free from the Mass govt.
Quote from: neggy on February 03, 2009, 01:09 PM NHFT
It is not up to the business to collect the tax. It is up to the MA resident to fill in the amount on their MA state income tax form that they paid for out of state purchases and pay the 5% tax on that amount. The line has been on the form forever.
If MA wins this case, every retail store in the state with a NH operation will close up rather than deal with the BS.
Another reason to buy things in CASH when a MA resident buying in NH.
good points. I laugh at that part where I have to claim what I bought in NH to avoid paying sales tax. . . I laugh out loud for a minute and click zero and continue.
Quote from: Ogre on February 03, 2009, 01:24 PM NHFT
Sadly, I bet they lose this case and will force the company to comply, since the company has 25 stores in Mass. If the company had real balls, if they lost the case, they'd shut down every shop in MA and open new ones in NH, then continue to send advertisements for their services to the MA residents. As long as the company has a presence in Mass, the Mass govt can get them. Once they're out of the state, they're (relatively) free from the Mass govt.
It would be nice, but they still need the people in MA to buy from them. Like the article said, they have what, 25 in MA and 6 Town Faire Tires in NH. . . that's a lot of property to buy, moving costs, getting rid of employment you've spent all that time hiring and training. Then you have to find people to fill those spots. Then you have to hope that the business will increase in your area.
At a Staples in Seabrook I used to work at, we were the go-to place for anyone on 95 to come up to NH and order furniture and other office supplies, pay cash . . . they can even pick up their order at the store and be completely invisible to MA tax man.
I can remember the Illinois Department of Revenue going after a small furniture store in Wisconsin that was selling and delivering furniture to Illinois residents for the difference in sales tax being 1.75%. I'm not sure of what came of it, but I do know that this was the only store the company had.
If the firms threaten to close some or all of their Mass stores the Mass government will have balance the costs of losing the jobs (unemployment payments, etc.) against the amount they will collect on the few non-cash purchases made by Mass residents.
This whole thing could be fixed by NH making a law forbidding any other state from taxing at any NH retail outlet, if one doesn't already exist.
I don't understand why they allowed Mass to audit their NH stores. They are a Connecticut company so Mass only has power over the Mass operations.
Store are required to collect taxes over the internet from Mass residents if they have Mass operations because the item is shipped to Mass. Essentially iit is considered an in-state sale.
A store in NH operates under NH law no matter who owns it or whether or not they have Mass stores.
It's the same with employment. If you have a NH business and you employ a Mass resident, you are not obligated to withhold Mass taxes. You can do so as a courtesy to the employee if it is mutually agreeable.
Plus which, even if somebody has tires put on their vehicle in NH with Mass plates, how do we know that they are not going to drive it from the store to their new home in NH, and change the registration within 60 days as provided by NH law?
Quote from: djbridgeland on February 03, 2009, 02:10 PM NHFT
I can remember the Illinois Department of Revenue going after a small furniture store in Wisconsin that was selling and delivering furniture to Illinois residents for the difference in sales tax being 1.75%. I'm not sure of what came of it, but I do know that this was the only store the company had.
I'm fairly certain MA went after the NH Liquor stores as well as a Furniture place in Nashua for advertising tax free furniture (if picked up and not delivered).... both won. At a federal level MA would probably lose, at the MA level MA will win.
Quote from: doobie on February 03, 2009, 05:08 PM NHFT
At a federal level MA would probably lose, at the MA level MA will win.
Exactly. There's almost no way the Mass judges are going to rule against the Mass government. They are one and the same entity.
Quote from: Lloyd Danforth on February 03, 2009, 11:31 AM NHFT
When is our state going to start protecting its citizens?
Apparently we had a governor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldrim_Thomson,_Jr.) with a bit of a spine once:—
Quote[Meldrim Thomson] was also a strong proponent of state sovereignty. When Thomson learned Massachusetts tax agents were at New Hampshire liquor stores taking down the numbers on cars with Massachusetts license plates, he had them arrested. When he learned that Maine had arrested a Portsmouth (New Hampshire) lobsterman, in Maine waters, he began what was known as the "Lobster war." The conflict ended in the U.S. Supreme Court with the drawing of an ocean boundary between the two states at the mouth of the Piscataqua River.
Of course, I wouldn't rely on something like this. This guy should move his business out of mAssachusetts, or split them into two independent companies to get around the tax laws.
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Lynch%2C+Ayotte+will+fight+Bay+State+tax+plan&articleId=6d1577cc-5a05-4b11-973d-618eefd68caa (http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Lynch%2C+Ayotte+will+fight+Bay+State+tax+plan&articleId=6d1577cc-5a05-4b11-973d-618eefd68caa)
Oh my! Our Governor has a Clue!
QuoteCONCORD – New Hampshire will join the challenge of what Gov. John Lynch called an "outrageous" Massachusetts effort to force businesses here to collect Bay State taxes.
Gov. John Lynch and Attorney General Kelly Ayotte announced yesterday that the state will file a brief in a court dispute between Massachusetts officials and a tire retailer with stores in both states.
""I think it is outrageous that Massachusetts erroneously believes it can impose its sales tax here in New Hampshire," Lynch said. "We have chosen not to have a sales tax here in New Hampshire and we are not about to let Massachusetts impose its tax on our businesses."
The Massachusetts Department of Revenue wants Town Fair Tire Centers to collect a 5 percent use tax on sales to customers who live in Massachusetts but buy tires in New Hampshire.
It issued an order telling Town Fair to pay $108,947 in use taxes it said the chain should have collected, based on sales records at three stores. The chain lost its case at a Massachusetts appellate tax board, and the case is now at the state's Supreme Judicial Court. The company has seven New Hampshire stores, including four at border locations in Nashua, Portsmouth, Salem and Seabrook.
Retailers here said they fear the Town Fair case is just the start of what could become a fight with every store that operates in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Nancy Kyle, Retail Merchants Association president, said this week, "They're testing the waters to see how it goes, and if they win their case, the big-box retailers are next."
Ayotte said yesterday she's planning to file, "on behalf of the state to ensure that New Hampshire businesses will not become agents of Massachusetts tax authorities."
She said tax law in Massachusetts should not be enforced in a way that interferes with interstate commerce. The court has set a March 23 deadline for all interested parties to file in the case.
Town Fair Tire Centers is a Connecticut corporation doing business throughout five New England states.
Massachusetts and New Hampshire tax collections have had run-ins over several decades on tax collections, liquor sales and car registrations.
Court rules Mass. can't collect in N.H. (http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090826/NEWS01/908260335)
Nashua tire store off Bay State hook
By JAY LINDSAY The Associated Press
August 26, 2009
The state's [Massachusetts] highest court ruled yesterday that Massachusetts can't collect taxes from a retail chain that sells tires to Massachusetts residents in New Hampshire, a longtime sales tax haven for Bay State shoppers.
Massachusetts officials said their case against Town Fair Tire Centers was narrowly focused, but others worried if the state won the case customers all over the region would pay more for cross-border shopping. The case prompted New Hampshire lawmakers to pass a law to make it tough for its businesses to collect Massachusetts taxes from Massachusetts customers.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ended up avoiding any broad constitutional issues about interstate commerce, instead focusing on state law, which it said didn't allow the state to assume Massachusetts customers at Town Fair Tire's New Hampshire stores were going to use the tires in Massachusetts.
"The Legislature may, of course, enact such a presumption, but in the absence of any such statutory authorization, it is error to rely on a presumption that tires sold to a Massachusetts resident outside the Commonwealth were actually used in the Commonwealth," the court wrote.
In a statement, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue said, the "SJC decision is the end of the line for this case, since it does not involve constitutional issues that might require the attention of a higher court."
Prior to the ruling, experts such as University of Georgia tax law professor Walter Hellerstein warned it was possible that state residents would not just pay taxes on everything they buy in New Hampshire, but that neighboring higher sales tax states like Connecticut and Rhode Island would try to recover revenues lost when their residents shopped in Massachusetts.
Hellerstein said Tuesday that the case ended with "a whimper, rather than a bang" because the high court was able to avoid any constitutional questions.
"They didn't want to step into kind of a hornet's nest," Hellerstein said. "They don't want a war with New Hampshire, I assume."
Town Fair Tire's attorney David Nagle said the decision is important because of what the court refused to do.
"Here the court drew the line where everybody thought it had been drawn, except the Department of Revenue," Nagle said. "And maybe the department overreached in this instance."
Massachusetts residents pay a 6.25 percent sales tax after an increase this year - they paid 5 percent during the period covered in the suit.
The case centered on Massachusetts' "use" tax, which residents must pay for goods they buy out of state but use in Massachusetts. The idea is to level the playing field between Massachusetts retailers and out of state retailers in tax-free areas. But residents almost never voluntarily pay the tax, and retailers in tax free New Hampshire have little motivation to give up the competitive advantage by collecting it.
In 2003, a Massachusetts auditor searching a sample of records at three Town Fair stores in New Hampshire found 313 invoices which listed a Massachusetts address for the customer.
The Department of Revenue then assessed about $109,000 in uncollected use taxes to Town Fair. The decision was upheld by the state's Appellate Tax Board, and Town Fair appealed to the high court.
The state argued if tires were sold to Massachusetts residents for use on cars that were registered in Massachusetts, that was "compelling circumstantial evidence" that justified a presumption that the tires were actually used in Massachusetts, and the retailer must assess the use tax.
But the SJC said state law does not permit that presumption.
"The (appellate tax) board's conclusion is untenable," the court wrote. "It is not supported by the language of the statute."
Though lawmakers could try to change the law, Nagle said it won't be easy because retailers would have a tough time avoiding privacy issues when they tried to find out where customers were going to use an item.
"It's one thing to have a tax assessed that doesn't depend on anything other than the merchandise you're buying," Nagle said. "It's another to have a retailer asking background questions about where you're from and where you're planning to use property."