What about buying cigarettes online?

[Jonsy]

I am wondering if anyone knows about buying things online that come from another country. For instance, tobacco, you can buy tobacco online way cheaper, so when it comes to buying this, it comes from another country, is this somehow illegal? or what about the Tax part of it? If you buy cigarettes online and you are paying any tax on them just shipping and handling, are you then responsible to pay state tax on them? I have a friend whom is buying tobacco online which she just pays for shipping, I somehow wonder if this is illegal or if you can get in trouble for not paying state tax? Does anyone have any information about this? Thank you

[Possum]

I'm curious, Jonesy. Why would you come to these boards to ask about buying tobacco on line? Is smoking one of the symptoms of ADD that I don't know about?

Do you have ADD yourself, or did you just decide to ask us cuz we're such a great, fun loving bunch?

I suggest you do a google search.

[EshkaronsEngine]

I smoke and I find it does help me focus. I haven't done the online thing so I can't say but I do agree they cost a pretty penny with all the tax so if there is a way to buy them without paying so much tax I think it would be illegal if found out by the authorities.

[Don S.]

As I understand it, it is not illegal for most of these sellers (many are based in Switzerland) to sell cigarettes online according to the laws of their host countries. However, I believe it is at least illegal to buy them for shipment into the United States without reporting the purchase and paying use and other taxes on them to one’s state jurisdiction. Use tax is probably the least complied with tax of any tax in history, although with today’s cash crunch many states are making a concerted effort to crack down and collect at least some of the millions of dollars each year that fall through their otherwise quite sticky fingers. Most people don’t even know what use tax is.

In brief, because of interstate commerce laws, as interpreted by court decisions, sellers cannot be forced to get a state sales tax license and collect sales tax for any state in which they do not have a “significant nexus,” such as owning or renting property in the state or having sales people solicit there personally. (Telephone/fax sales do not qualify as a significant nexus, nor does shipping by a common carrier. However, delivering by a company owned or leased vehicle would qualify.) Therefore, it is up to buyers to report non-taxed purchases (regarding sales from out-of-state sellers which are subject to sales/use taxes) to their own state and then pay the tax themselves. This is called "use tax."

In regard to cigarettes, there are also federal and state excise taxes which I am not as knowledgeable about as I am sales tax. I am uncertain if it is even legal for United States residents to buy tobacco products online from overseas companies. However, if it is not outright illegal, I am at least certain that the buyer is guilty of tax evasion if not reporting the purchase and paying all the applicable taxes, which would rather defeat the purpose of buying them this way in the first place. (About two-thirds of the price of a pack of cigarettes is taxes which is why, by the way, they haven’t been made illegal by sanctimonious public officials bemoaning their deleterious effects upon the health of a hapless populace.)

In regard to smoking and ADD, it has long been known instinctively that smoking improves concentration. In fact, I refer to this within my short story “Pride’s Prison” regarding TS/ADHD and school bullying. In Doyle’s much more renowned stories, Sherlock Holmes would often remark: “This is a three bowl problem,” meaning three pipe bowls of his favorite tobacco. It helped him think. About fifteen years ago, I read of a study that seemed to confirm this intuition based upon empirical experience. There is some chemical within tobacco that does improve one’s ability to concentrate, probably the only admitted benefit of the “demon weed”! Thus, I think a much greater percentage of people with ADD smoke than does the general popualtion, probably without understanding why.

[Don S.]

I’ve been doing some research and it appears that my guess is correct. Apparently, it is not illegal to buy cigarettes online in the United States, but just as I said states have been cracking down on consumers who buy them this way and don’t report the purchases to their state governments and pay all the applicable taxes. According to this article, states have been forcing online cigarette retailers to turn over their customer lists and customers have received notices of taxes due:

http://www.helium.com/items/290973-is-buying-discounted-cigarettes-online-legal-in-the-us?page=2

[denislilee]

There are many websites providing online services for cigarettes and Cigars...During an online tobacco shop on the World Wide Web, you need so much to offer, see their cigarettes at a cheap price. The cigarettes, which can buy cheap online can save time if they can be sent to your home.

[Lottie]

I read up about this online last year apparently one can grow their own tobacco in `the states` legally. This makes a huge amount of sense to me it has no additional pesticides or additives and if you must smoe it is cheaper and it keeps pests away from your veggies and flowers too.

You cant do it in Australia as we are continually becoming more and more puritan, but I suspect it may have something to do we the fact that we have `universal healthcare` and we are addicted to tobacco tax.

Anyway you may want to consider growing your own tobbacco if it is super taxed as it is here.

[devluka]

Another huge benefit to buying your tobacco products online is that you can find a brand of smokes that has never been or is no longer carried in your area.

[Contrary Texan]

Originally Posted by Lottie

I read up about this online last year apparently one can grow their own tobacco in `the states` legally. This makes a huge amount of sense to me it has no additional pesticides or additives and if you must smoe it is cheaper and it keeps pests away from your veggies and flowers too.

You cant do it in Australia as we are continually becoming more and more puritan, but I suspect it may have something to do we the fact that we have `universal healthcare` and we are addicted to tobacco tax.

Anyway you may want to consider growing your own tobbacco if it is super taxed as it is here.

From what I've found online, in Australia, it's not illegal for the individual consumer to grow their own, just can't do it commercially. In the US, same thing -- as long as it's not for sale, you can grow it. If you use for yourself, perfectly legal. You might want to check into this further, maybe ask about how to buy the seeds, if you can legally buy them overseas.

My son bought seeds from a guy but we just didn't have a good place to plant it originally. Just cut down the big hackberry that was blocking a big section of the yard and now need to find someone with a tiller we can borrow, then clean up the yard and plow it up, water regularly. But 95 degrees and higher, we don't work outside much. Being in the middle of a drought, we'd also have to remember to water regularly. But I wouldn't mind getting several planted around the house to ward off the bugs, not to mention the high cost of tobacco and taxes that go with them. So maybe we can get the "garden" going this fall, see if we can't start saving some money then.

[StoicNate]

In the USA, you can't buy cigarettes online due to a law that was passed 2 years ago.
You can still buy smokeless tobacco, pipe tobacco, cigars, and rolling papers online.

http://www.lungusa.org/about-us/our-...signs-law.html

[Rebelyell]

THis is an aDD FORUM NOT A SMOKING FORUM dammit.

[Jade Sea]

Originally Posted by Lottie

I read up about this online last year apparently one can grow their own tobacco in `the states` legally. This makes a huge amount of sense to me it has no additional pesticides or additives and if you must smoe it is cheaper and it keeps pests away from your veggies and flowers too.

You cant do it in Australia as we are continually becoming more and more puritan, but I suspect it may have something to do we the fact that we have `universal healthcare` and we are addicted to tobacco tax.

Anyway you may want to consider growing your own tobbacco if it is super taxed as it is here.

Tobacco can be hard to germinate, because the seeds are so teeny weeny. If you do manage that successfully it's a very easy plant to grow. A word of caution though... some people recommend using tobacco as a pesticide. While it is true that nicotine is deadly to insects it's also not that great for humans. I would argue against doing so as nicotine is easily absorbed through the skin and who would really want to eat veggies and fruit sprayed with nicotine? YUK! Then again I'm about as pro-organic as they come so this response is to be expected from me.

[TygerSan]

While it is true that nicotine is deadly to insects it's also not that great for humans.

Having had contact with people who work in labs which use nicotine in their daily experiments, nicotine itself is highly toxic to humans. I'd guess that handling tobacco plants and leaves isn't horrendously bad, but pure nicotine extract is bad news (potentially deadly).

[lukeydavis]

well you can buy cigs online but you have to be careful, find a site that is not based inside EU as they don’t have to report any purchases and also find a site that sells duty free cigs and there are a few of them, most don’t send duty free cigs. So have a search on Google and see which sites sell duty free cigs and are based outside of EU.

[JamalJ]

Originally Posted by denislilee

There are many websites providing online services for cigarettes and Cigars...During an online tobacco shop on the World Wide Web, you need so much to offer, see their cigarettes at a cheap price. The cigarettes, which can buy cheap online can save time if they can be sent to your home.

lol, I can't believe you all think this is a real thread.

This thread was made by a program called Xrumer.

https://www.google.com/search?num=30....0.yWMtPeHNsxk