If you are a common US citizen seeking reasonable ways of buying your favorite smokes without going bankrupt this essay is strongly recommended for your sake!
Contents:
Introduction
Interstate Trade from the States with Low Taxes
Interstate Trade from Indian Reservation
International Trade - Stores Located Out of the USA
SAVINGS COMPARISON
Conclusions
Let's take a look on a famous story.
The Otamedia Company with HQ in Switzerland shipped cigarettes parcels in the US , and was a leader in online cigarette market. Huge amount of parcels have been confiscated at JFK since November 17, 2004. And up to today neither Yesmoke nor the governmental bodies explain the reasons of the above confiscations.
Let's consider two matters:
1. Why the cigarettes were confiscated?
Yesmoke wrote in his own articles that “ the City of New York condemned Yesmoke to the payment of a 17 million dollar fine for "smuggling", even though the cigarettes that the Yesmoke shop sent were always accompanied by customs declarations.”
First, it was default judgment. It means that Yesmoke and its representatives didn't appear in the Court. And there is no legal court opinion of was it smuggling or not.
Second, according the court's decision all Yesmoke's attempts of selling cigarettes on the territory of USA were interrupted. But according to the International Legislation all parcels belong to the sender till they reach the recipient. And in the case with Yesmoke those parcels were confiscated not as illegally imported cigarettes but as the Otamedia company property. So the confiscation took place without court opinion about the legal issues but with the court order to seize Otamedia's property.
2. Consequences for the smokers.
Many of the smokers did not receive cigarettes. Part of them received refund, but the majority of them made back charges with their credit/debit cards and banks. Some people for whatever reasons did not contact their banks and they have lost money paid for the last order (as a rule not more than $100). And nobody received any letter from the State departments of taxation. You may compare yourself the above mentioned situation with the huge savings gained and with the possibility of receiving backtax bills that results from buying cigarettes from American and Native American online stores.
back
|
