🚀 go-pugleaf

Robert Barkus (Robar1@magicnet.net) wrote:
: Steven Bradley wrote:
: > 
: > Warning - Avoid Gateway Computers (aka Gateway 2000).
: > 
: > state computer company.  My advice is to find someone else who is out of state
: > and save paying the tax!

: in the world. My second point is, I don't know how wise it is to give 
: advise which is illegal. In this society, if a person got in trouble for 
: not paying the sales tax, you could find yourself on the wrong end of a 
: law-suit as well.  Just my humble opinion.

However, if you have a choice to deal with a company that charges tax
(due to a presence in Florida) and one that does not, it is clearly ADVISABLE
to deal with the out of state one -- pay the amount listed by the out of state
vendor and save $.  The state of Florida can not prove nor require the records
of companies not licensed to do business in the state.  Therefore they can not
collect.  Additionally is that as a residence, I have much more freedom and
rights than a licensed Florida business would.  If the state came here and
said "show us records on out of state purchases", I would say "go to h*ll"
and that would be the end of it it.  For businesses in Florida buying from
out of state, that is another story.  True for _businesses_ they have to pay
tax on what they buy that does not already have the tax included.  For the
items purchased by a residence, that is not the case, as they have no means
to require the payment, nor determine the amount, nor force an out of state
company to comply with providing the information to determine that.

Or to put it another way, as one company told me "if we had to employ an
accounting dept to collect tax for every state, we'd have an accounting
department consisting of more manpower than the entire rest of the company
combined", as he went on "since all of the county, city, and state variances
would create several hundred different tax submissions every month or quarter".

The bottom line is if a business has any presence or license in Florida, they
have to collect tax.  If they did not, the records could be obtained by the
state.  If they do no have a presence in Florida, Florida can not obtain the
records of out of state purchases.  As I am not a licensed business in Florida,
they can not legally require me to disclose what I have paid for what I have
bought, nor where I have paid it.

My taxes are paid on what I make before the paycheck is issued.  How I use
that is something they can not determine.  The fact of if I have paid tax
on out of state purchases they can not prove in court as they have no out of
state records (remember, it is in the business's best interest to not do this
as if they did for one, the would have to do for all of the state, city, and
county variations).

Therefore lack of evidence, lack of ability to obtain evidence (where legally
can the state force the access of records of out of state sales?) means lack
of case.

Hence deal mailorder, its cheaper!

Steven

-- 
Steven G. Bradley    |    The Forest City Exchange    | 121 Cambridge Drive
System Administrator |      Forest City, Florida      | Longwood, FL 32779-5707
                     | 1200-14400/PEP  1200-33600/HST | 
steven@sgb.oau.org   | (407) 862-5112  (407) 862-8088 | Tel: (407) 862-7226