The Feds

[Thomas]

On another Web site someone posted an article in SFrancisco about the feds going after people selling their wine collections without a license to sell alcohol.

It's tax evasion, and the feds made the clearinghouse winecommune.com give them their customers' names; they, the feds, have started contacting the private citizens.

Evreyone should know that it is illegal anywhere in this free country to sell what you own without a license, if what you own is alcohol-based, and wine is just that.

The license is merely a formality that registers the licensee as a source of tax revenue--nothing much else.




[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 09-16-2004).]

[Innkeeper]

Does this mean that everyone who sells wine on E-bay or WineBiz has a license or needs to have one?

[Thomas]

Yes.

A citizen cannot sell ANY alcohol without having a license, which is merely registration to pay taxes on the transaction.

There is a federal tax on all alcohol businesses called an "Occupation Tax" (sounds American?) It was established by executive order during the "no taxes, get government off our backs" Reagan presidency. It's just an annual fee because they want the money--it is in addition to excise and sales taxes on wine.

Politicians are so full of you know what, and so many Americans believe them...



[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 09-16-2004).]

[Bucko]

That blows IMO.

[winoweenie]

Undoubtedly conceived by a beaurucrat dissatisfied with a private wine purchase.WW

[Thomas]

Wish it were so ww, but the tax was actually imposed because the Reagan administration needed to find ways to raise revenue without alerting the general public to a tax increase. It was easy to just hit the alcohol industry for existing. It actually is what it says it is: a tax on a certain occupation, exclusive of the excise taxes for wine produced and sales taxes for wine sold. It is a tax just to be in the business, paid annually just for the fun of it, and the back door revenue it produces.

Imagine: hundreds of producers, hundreds of importers, hundreds of wholesalers, thousands of retailers across the country pay the feds a tax to exist. The idea used to warm a Roman Procouncil's heart...

[hotwine]

Sounds like the annual "wireless tax" paid by the Brits for every radio or TV receiver they own. It's tax collection run amok!

[Thomas]

You got that right Hotwine. What truly sickens me are politicians who don't just lie--that is a given--but they manipulate and subvert.

The Occupation Tax does not appear on the tax screen because it really is not a tax at all; it is not based on sales; not based on income; not based on production; not based on volume; it is based solely on receiving a license to do business. It is a fee and therefore an under-the-radar-screen tax. Such mechanisms give politicians the ability to claim with a straight face that they are not raising taxes, and they usually pick industries that the structure of which people don't generally know much about, plus they don't particularly care about--how many evangelicals do you think care if alcohol taxes go UP?

And remember: this fee came into existence during the so-called revolution to get government off our backs! In fact, it was instituted at the same time the Government Warning went onto labels. Notice a pattern? Taxes and warnings for social engineering--truly American, eh.

This one riles me every time I hear a politician say he/she is not going to "raise your taxes." No, not yours, but the taxes of others.



[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 09-27-2004).]

[Zinner]

It reminds me of when I was in Bordeaux and some French friends tried to explain that one of the reasons gas prices are so high in France is that they have to pay a tax on one of their gasoline taxes.

Apparently politicians are the same the world over. Wish they would get so creative when it comes to actually solving our problems.

[hotwine]

I couldn't believe what the Brits are having to pay for gas.... 5 BP, or about $8 per gallon. With their proximity to the North Sea fields, their prices should be very close to ours. Can only assume the majority of the cost to the consumer is tax. (Same price for a pack of smokes BTW... 5 BP per. Yet you see people smoking everywhere, especially young people. Crazy.)