Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In some states it isn't just online purchases. If you go to a state with no sales tax and buy something for use in your own state, you're supposed to pay the tax on that, too.
When you do your income tax there is a place to identify these types of purchases. Nobody I know does this. I know I don't.
If you find a dime on the ground, you are legally obliged to report it as income, and pay one cent tax on it, or maybe 2c or 3c, depending on your marginal bracket, but you could probably get away with calling it capital gains, and pay 1.5c on it like the billionaires do.
But there is a limit to how anally silly a person can be in his personal life and still maintain a modicum of psychological health. Draw the line where you are comfortable with it.
Because so few people pay it, it can actually be a red flag, as in what are you trying to hide by paying this tax?
But anyways, yeah you owe use tax in California.
Well, I worried about this thing of raising red flags when it first dawned on me that I might owe the tax, and though I want to do the right thing I don't want the FTB suddenly digging into my past purchases when I was ignorant of all this and socking me with back taxes for 10 years with interest and penalties. Isn't there some way I can do my duty without putting myself in jeopardy?
Isn't there some way I can do my duty without putting myself in jeopardy?
Sure. Estimate how much your tax might be, and donate it directly to a cause. Like food for the hungry. Or go to traffic court and pay the fines for minimum-wage single moms who got parking tickets while dropping their kids off at daycare, and can't afford to take a day off work without pay to try to fight it. You know, typical Norman Rockwell Americana. Or the Sarah Palin Fund to hunt down the terrorist Julian Assange and bring him down in a hail of gunfire.
I guess the BOE will get the shock of their life when they get a check from me then. Imagine--a resident who actually stepped forward to pay a tax the state didn't even know I owed!
If someone was stupid enough to do that, they'd come back and hit them up for more.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
