Possible retirement to New Hampshire

[buck naked]

And Maine's sales tax is nothing to sneeze at.

Saw a Maine state car taking license plate #'s of Mainers in a NH store parking lot.

The top-selling liquor store in all of New Hampshire is in Hampton, right off the northbound lane of I-95, heading toward Maine. New Hampshire doesn’t have to share how much liquor is sold to Maine residents. Last year the NH Liquor Commission revealed that 50 percent of retail credit and debit card sales were to people from NH, 21 percent to people who live in Massachusetts and 8 percent to people who live in Maine.

That 8 percent is about $30 million in sales and 200,000 cases of alcohol — no small number. ME taxes liquor at 8% so those sales equal $640K in lost revenue to the state. Recent MHPC research has estimated that Maine is losing up to $2.2 billion in retail sales each and every year to New Hampshire. No wonder they are writing down license plate #'s. Should Mainers expect a bill in the mail?

[Nonesuch]

New Hampshire doesn't look kindly on license plate tracking

Originally Posted by buck naked

That 8 percent is about $30 million in sales and 200,000 cases of alcohol — no small number. ME taxes liquor at 8% so those sales equal $640K in lost revenue to the state. Recent MHPC research has estimated that Maine is losing up to $2.2 billion in retail sales each and every year to New Hampshire. No wonder they are writing down license plate #'s. Should Mainers expect a bill in the mail?

No, but if our next governor has the cojones, Maine state troopers can expect a warm welcome the next time they decide to loiter in our Liquor store lot.

[buck naked]

can't you do better than a 40 year old article? I never mentioned state troopers either. I vaguely remember them stopping people at the MA border and asking if they purchased liquor.

It's illegal to take any liquor over the border to MA, but the law is not enforced by anyone anymore. Not a drop of alcohol is supposed to cross the state line in your car unless you have a permit from the state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission stating the exact amount you intend to bring into the Bay State. That law has been in place since the end of Prohibition in 1933, and violators can be punished with fines of $100 to $1,000, and/or up to a year in jail - for bringing a six-pack across the border. At least, that’s what the statute says. In reality, almost no one follows the law. Most people don’t even know it exists.

Laws for transporting alcohol vary because states were allowed to concoct their own rules following Prohibition. 3 gallons is the limit that is allowed to go to ME...




Here's another case...3 years old. A NH law firm with partners in ME have to pay ME income tax on earnings earned in NH.

New Hampshire Law Partners Face Maine Income Tax - Forbes

In the case of a partnership like Preti, the simple solution would seem to be to allocate its Maine income to its Maine partners and its New Hampshire income to its New Hampshire partners with one or the other group having to pick up some out of state income in order for it to balance out. Great idea. Only Maine doesn’t let you do that. (Neither does Rhode Island).

Maine’s statute, possibly for administrative simplicity, or, perhaps, to capture as much tax as possible from out of state partners, ignores this reality