08:37 – Barbara and Frances are both taking the day off work today to drive down to the hospital in Thomasville and bring their mother back to her apartment at Creekside. They’ve arranged to have home health aides with Sankie around the clock until she gets back on her feet.
I knew it had to happen eventually, but I’m still pissed. I ordered a book for Barbara from Amazon.com yesterday. When the email invoice arrived, it showed they’d charged sales tax. Bastards. North Carolina already collects use tax. There’s a line on the state income tax return where you have to calculate use tax due as a percentage of your adjusted gross income, as well as adding additional use tax for individual purchases over a certain dollar amount. So now North Carolina is double-taxing purchases from vendors outside North Carolina. Bastards.
It would also appear that you are being taxed twice on purchases made within the state if the use tax is calculated as a part of your income. If you purchased nothing out of state are you still paying the use tax? If so you already paid sales tax and now pay a use tax.
Move to Texas, Tennessee or some other state with no income tax. Well TN does have the Hall Tax for dividend or interest income over $2500 with income from credit unions exempted.
One is allowed to calculate use tax manually, so if one purchases nothing out of state one can declare zero use tax liability. The percentage is pretty low. ISTR that we paid less than $200 on that line last year. But still, given that probably 95%+ of what we buy on-line is from Costco, which already collects NC sales tax, and Amazon, that means we’re being double-taxed on essentially all of our on-line purchases.
I think SCOTUS blew it with the so-called “nexus” thing. If I order something on-line from Costco, it shouldn’t matter that Costco has stores in North Carolina. If what I ordered from them was shipped to me from out-of-state, the transaction did not take place in North Carolina and so should not be subject to any sales tax. And the use tax is just a cynical way to get around not being able to charge sales tax. It’s still interference with interstate commerce, which is forbidden by the Constitution.
Politicians. Here we have a guy who admitted to being destitute in his early life, wrote paens to Marx, Lenin, and Stalin in his work “How To Be a Good Communist”, admitted deriving inspiration from Che Guevara, praised Fidel and Cuba as lovers of human rights and liberty, criticized the USA as committing “unspeakable atrocities in the world”, admitted sabotaging his country’s government (although that may have been a positive), spent 20 years or more in jail, then spends the rest of his working life as a politician, died a couple months ago, has his will read today, and disperses the equivalent of US$4 MILLION amassed solely from being a politician.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-26014868
Shakespeare got it wrong. First thing that should be done is to kill all the politicians—although most of them ARE lawyers.
Friend of mine from Germany wanted a camera from Amazon. He had it shipped to me and I took it with me on my trip to Germany last year. Just recently he got an email from Amazon stating that he should pay a use tax to the state of TN. He was going to pay the tax. I told him to not pay it because doing so would be stupid.
For one thing Amazon has no information on him that can be reported to the state of TN. Secondly the email clearly stated the information would not be reported to the state. So Amazon thinks that sending the email will cause people to blindly send money to the state for which the state has no way to track the purchase or the amount owed.
Remember the SWAT raid on Gibson Guitars in Tennessee over tonewood they imported? Republican backers, Gibson, BTW; Fender and Martin used the exact same wood from the exact same sources, but sent money to the current regime and escaped being raided or charged with anything. The government then took all that wood, and after extorting $300k in fines and causing $2.5 million in legal fees, returned the wood. But here is what Gibson did with that returned wood:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/02/what_gibson_guitars_did_with_the_wood_the_government_returned.html
If I played guitar professionally, this would make me switch from the Fender Stratocaster I have to Gibson.
Bob, the counter argument would be that you are free to drive to the next State and buy what you want without paying NC’s tax. No interference at all, you’re just not working hard enough at evading the tax.
Chuck W, wouldn’t 1/4 of Mandela’s total worth be the Nobel Peace Prize he received? Or did he have to share that with de Klerk? (which I’ve often thought was a great name for a politician “the clerk”). Still, one does wonder how essentially destitute people can amass such wealth in such a short time, without resorting to some form of illegal means. While I don’t think leaders of countries should be under-paid, this seems excessive. On the other hand, he was very popular on the speech circuit, and perhaps he earned it honestly.
Ray, I still owe TN taxes on the Kindle Fire I bought through you. I’m an Outlaw! 🙂
Ray, I still owe TN taxes on the Kindle Fire I bought through you.
No problem. I have paid the tax several times over by contributing to the LEO coffers by nature of exceeding the speed through a red light camera zone by 1 mph. Imagine getting citation in the mail for going 41 mph in a 40 mph zone. I could go to court and fight it. But that would put the citation on my driving record and cost me about $247.00 dollars in fines and court costs. Instead I will just pay the $50.00. Seems like an extortion racket to me, run by a camera company that gets commission and has no oversight or independent audit of their equipment calibration. The motivation to cheat is high and I suspect is abused.
Remember the SWAT raid on Gibson Guitars in Tennessee over tonewood they imported?
Ah, government abuse. What is going to be next? Shutting down lanes on a highway on a heavily traveled bridge in political payback? Say it ain’t so.
“…which is forbidden by the Constitution.”
Thanks. I needed a laugh this morning.
Remember that when a politician (all of them) use the phrase “…fair share of taxes..” they mean that you are not paying enough and yours should go up.
I think SCOTUS blew it with the so-called “nexus” thing. If I order something on-line from Costco, it shouldn’t matter that Costco has stores in North Carolina. If what I ordered from them was shipped to me from out-of-state, the transaction did not take place in North Carolina and so should not be subject to any sales tax. And the use tax is just a cynical way to get around not being able to charge sales tax. It’s still interference with interstate commerce, which is forbidden by the Constitution.
Just order from one of Amazon’s third party vendors. They do not collect sales tax via Amazon here in the Great State of Texas. Sales Tax is only collected by Amazon for direct sales. But you may lose your free shipping.
What really annoys me is that we used to have 50 separate state tax authorities, which were analogous to 50 individual muggers. But now the states are starting to co-operate, which makes them analogous to an organized crime family.
“…analogous to an organized crime family.”
There it is, and remarkably similar to the operations of the Fed Leviathan. While the corporations cooperate fully. Isn’t this is what is known as corporate fascism? While, paradoxically, or not, we have Bolsheviks in the WH; sort of analogous, I guess, to the Molotov-von Ribbentrop pact. Just looked up the latter and discovered that his son, a former Waffen-SS officer, is still hale and hearty at 92.
Ray, thanks for picking up my slack, though you over did it by quite a bit! I think they only wanted something like $6.
I recently paid $307 for having an expired driver’s license (5 yr renewal, and I simply forgot how fast 5 yrs fly by). My car had it’s plate scanned during a recent drift net patrol by the local RCMP (Revenue Collecting Money Patrol) and they pulled me over. Luckily I had a friend with me who could drive us away or they would have towed the car, for additional fees. They also checked his license. When I paid the fine and renewed the license the clerk said “Hmmm, they usually only give warnings” so the coffers must have been empty. I now look at my license more often!
They also threatened, but ultimately didn’t give me a fine for not having my front license plate installed, when I complained that my error was a simple mistake and not a deliberate attempt at defrauding the government of their $75 renewal fee. An offer I couldn’t refuse, as I quickly went into my best abject subject role and starting tugging my forelock in earnest supplication. An extortion threat arrow for Bob’s analogy quiver, though I liken the cops more to Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Both are organized and criminal.
Ray, thanks for picking up my slack, though you over did it by quite a bit! I think they only wanted something like $6.
I did pay my $50.00 sin tax in 50 $1.00 checks. Annoyed the hell out of the clerk and she initially started to refuse the transaction as she said policy was to not allow multiple checks. I asked her to show me the policy. She grumbled something and indicated she would be nice and accept the checks. Hint: there was no policy, there may be now.
Next time I will bring in lots of change, exactly $50.00 in pennies, nickels and dimes. Quarters would make it too easy. Rolled? Not on your life.
Thanks for the operator license reminders; mine and Mrs. OFD’s are up for renewal this year and I would expect our local yokel huckleberries to jump right on it if we forget. So they would have towed your car, too; real cute. Probably the same down here, plus also looking for even more chit to fine you for. Sounds familiar.
People are gonna remember all this, and also the continuing series of cop horror shows on the net, where they’ve tased somebody, beat a disabled kid to death, shot somebody out of hand because they were in a hurry, etc. Those two cops who were recently acquitted for dishing out a savage and deadly beating to a guy have had all their job and personal info disseminated and I don’t give them much of a chance at avoiding some kind of retribution; the deceased guy’s dad is a retired deputy sheriff, too.
Folks will also remember the crap we’re always handed when dealing with local, state and Fed gummint bureaucracies, insurance companies and banks. I fully expect to see a lot of lynchings in the foreseeable future in this country. Those people over in Ukraine and other places who’ve been rioting lately haven’t seen nothin’ yet.
23 today and sunny, no wind, for a change. Couple of inches of snow for Wednesday, the weather liars say; we haven’t had much snow at all for the past several years here. But plenty of subzero cold and wind and ice.
Mrs. OFD is in Orlando this week; doesn’t like FL much at all.
And how ’bout that Super Bowl, eh? I didn’t watch it but saw the plays roll out online elsewhere; didn’t see that coming. Manning got taken to the woodshed bigtime. Sorry; still trying to kick the pro sports jones….
There was a football game on yesterday? I only knew about the beating Seattle gave Denver, but I don’t consider such a lop-sided victory a “game”. It was a drubbing, a thrashing, a rout, a sack, but not a game.
Yeah, thanks for the auto renewal reminder! Mine’s coming up and I have yet to see a reminder from WA state DMV.
EDIT: just tried to do it online, but failed because I need an emission test. Wonder if they will send me a notice THIS time, or whether I have to figure it all out myself. Sigh.
They not only do not send out reminders here, evidently, but they also apparently don’t bother to update their database with change-of-address, either, or even send an acknowledgement that they got it from me, like, over a year ago. This must be so when we get stopped they can arrest us, tow the vehicle and throw us in jail, I guess, with more fines. A guy I know in PA had something similar happen; staties stopped him claiming a scan of his plate showed he wasn’t insured; he told them he was and showed them the proof-of-insurance paper; not good enough; the cop’s computer told him the guy was uninsured. So the guy has the cop call the insurance company number, but it was at night and there was an answering service. So the cop made him park the car and stay there overnight until the company office opened up in the AM and he could verify the insurance. It was late and temps in the teens, and he had to sit there with a couple of his kittens that he’d had with him, for whatever reason, the whole night.
And not only will this guy remember how he was treated, but he put it all over the net, so now at least dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of other people will take note. This all adds up.
Which triggers the question: which is worse—states rights? or a Fed levianthan?
Depends on the state; one argument for breakup and return to loose confederacy is that folks could choose to live where they are most comfortable, on whatever levels most important to them. Most libruls and libtards obviously prefer Maffachufetts and Kalifornia to Texas and Mississippi. Southerners, the opposite. I’m good here in northern New England.
The Fed Leviathan has become a savage and violent empire, run by war criminals and thugs, who are supported by legions of minions in the government bureaucracies, the armed forces and police, the media, and academia. We can see that it’s been sowing the wind and we will soon enough, in our lifetimes, see it reap the whirlwind.
And in IT cybersecurity nooz (excuse me while I double up on the floor laughing) it turns out that crackers from Belarus may have infected the already shitty ObummerCARE software with malware. A gigantic shit sandwich without the bread!
Go to jail, become a vegetarian?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-04/nrn-jail-food/5237044
In the Maritimes (and likely New England) the authorities used to feed the prisoners lobster, as it was once considered a pest.
PETA are just a bunch of idiots, and shouldn’t be allowed to share the same air as the rest of us. You are what you eat, and I would rather be sentient omnivore, than a vegetable.
I don’t think less of young people, particularly young women, who support PETA. Young people have always been passionate about causes, and many of PETA’s positions are superficially attractive. I mean, who does want to see pets abused? Or livestock, for that matter.
The ones that annoy me are the ones who are old enough to know better. But, as you say, many of them aren’t too bright or simply have never thought about the issues with their brains rather than their guts.
“In the Maritimes (and likely New England) the authorities used to feed the prisoners lobster, as it was once considered a pest.”
It was also used as fertilizer.
In colonial days it was not unusual to find lobsters five and six feet long off the north Atlantic coast.
Yet another reason not to swim in the ocean.
Two other reasons are jellyfish and sharks.
But, as you say, many of them aren’t too bright or simply have never thought about the issues with their brains
Classic example of one girl I only dated once. We were eating hamburgers at a local hot spot in Grants Pass Oregon. We were talking and she learned that I lived on a cattle ranch. She then remarked that she did not understand how anyone could eat cows (while she was chomping on her burger). I then asked her where she thought the meat in her hamburger came from. She said the grocery store. Asking about the French Fries would have made her head explode. Date was officially over.