NYC eSmoke Shoppers Burn City, Bloomberg Seeks Back-taxes
Thousands of New York City consumers who purchased cigarettes from eSmokes.com will be forced to collectively cough up $33 million in unpaid taxes.
eSmokes will spit out to the NYC Department of Finance the names and addresses of 12,500 customers who bought from the Virginia-based distributor between 2002 and 2003.
"The city law department said eSmokes is bankrupt. Telephone numbers listed for the company were disconnected, and e-mails seeking comment weren't returned," reports Business Week. Perhaps their electronic voice box was just out of batteries.
Internet Cigarette Purchases Costing NYC [Business Week] (Thanks to Joel!)
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So . . . what about tobacco not sold as cigarettes? The Jenkins Act doesn't appear to apply to cigars or loose tobacco for use in "roll your own" cigarettes.
I had a roomie who bought a little packing device that came with a bunch of hollow cigarette tubes with filters. He also bought a few bags of aged shredded tobacco. It was nice. You could customize your smokes based on your preference for slow/fast burning, flavor, and for some people weed content. My point is, buying tobacco as such would seem to avoid any legal state scrutiny and put you back in the federal domain like most interstate internet commerce.