August 11, 2006

Unpaid Sales Tax on Fur Coat Gets Hubby in Trouble

By Ben Cunningham
Lauren Chumley is the Tennessee Commissoner of Revenue. This article has an interesting profile and the story about the husband who got in hot water. She estimates that the state is losing $450 million because Tennessee taxpayers are not declaring and paying taxes on items they purchase out of state. Just guestimating but the group of people who buy items out of state and don't pay taxes probably includes a majority of Tennesseans over the period of a year. Will have to double check but I believe that if the state had collected and spent that much additional revenue it would have put us over the constitutional spending cap called the Copeland cap.

The Department of Revenue's solution to this "problem" of not getting as much from your bank account as they feel they should be getting....is the Streamlined Sales Tax. More on that later.