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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 11:45 pm
Time: 11:45 pm
Results for tax avoidance
5 results foundAuthor: Merriman, David Title: Cigarette Tax Avoidance in the Chicago Area: A Contribution to the Literature Summary: The large tax differentials between Chicago and neighboring jurisdictions provide an incentive for smokers to buy cigarettes outside Chicago. By examining a random sample of discarded cigarette packs, I can see whether Chicago taxes have been paid on the cigarettes consumed in Chicago. I find a startling amount of tax avoidance: three-quarters of the packs found on the streets of Chicago did not display a Chicago tax stamp. Demonstrating that the cost of tax avoidance influences behavior in the predicted direction, the percentage of packs without a Chicago tax stamp fell as distance to lowertax borders increased. Details: Chicago: Institute of Government and Public Affairs of the University of Illinois, 2008. 56 p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper: Accessed May 14, 2012 at: http://igpa.uillinois.edu/system/files/documents/WP-MerrimanCigLitter.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://igpa.uillinois.edu/system/files/documents/WP-MerrimanCigLitter.pdf Shelf Number: 125265 Keywords: CigarettsLitteringTax AvoidanceTax Evasion (Chicago)Tobacco Products |
Author: Goolsbee, Austan Title: Playing with Fire: Cigarettes, Taxes and Competition from the Internet Summary: This paper documents the rise of the Internet as a source of cigarette tax competition for states in the United States. Using data on cigarette tax rates, taxable cigarette sales and individual smoking rates by state from 1980 to 2005 merged with data on Internet penetration, the paper documents that there has been a substantial increase in the sensitivity of taxable cigarette sales that is correlated with the rise of Internet usage within states. The estimates imply that the increased sensitivity from cigarette smuggling over the Internet has lessened the revenue generating potential of recent cigarette tax increases substantially. Given the continuing growth of the Internet and of Internet cigarette merchants, the results imply serious problems for state revenue authorities. Details: Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Ross School of Business, 2007. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper Series: Accessed May 15, 2012 at: http://www.bus.umich.edu/otpr/WP2007-5.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.bus.umich.edu/otpr/WP2007-5.pdf Shelf Number: 125266 Keywords: Cigarette SmugglingCigarettes (U.S.)Internet SalesTax AvoidanceTobacco Products |
Author: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Evaluation and Inspections Division Title: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Efforts to Prevent the Diversion of Tobacco Summary: The U.S. Department of Justice’s (Department) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is charged with investigating the diversion of alcohol and tobacco products from the legal distribution system to evade payment of federal and state excise taxes. This diversion can include several different types of criminal behavior, such as smuggling alcohol and tobacco products from a low tax state to sell in a high tax state, smuggling across international borders, avoiding taxes by pretending to export products but illegally selling them in the United States, producing counterfeit products, selling products without tax stamps or with counterfeit stamps, and selling products illegally over the Internet. In the United States, federal and state governments estimate that tobacco diversion costs over $5 billion in revenue from unpaid excise taxes annually. The primary reason that tobacco diversion is profitable in the United States is the disparity among the states’ excise taxes. For example, because South Carolina has the lowest state excise tax at 7 cents per pack of cigarettes and Rhode Island has the highest at $3.46 per pack, South Carolina is a source of less expensive cigarettes for criminals to buy and then resell at a profit in Rhode Island. While most cities or counties do not impose tobacco taxes, New York City and Chicago do, and those cities have the highest priced cigarettes in the country because of the additional city and county taxes. New York City charges $1.50 tax per pack in addition to a New York State tax of $2.75, resulting in $4.25 added to the cost of a pack of cigarettes. In Chicago, the combination of a state tax (98 cents), county tax ($2), and city tax (68 cents) adds a total of $3.66 to the cost of each pack of cigarettes. In addition to state and local taxes, federal taxes add another $1.50 to a pack of cigarettes. As of July 2009, the average retail price per pack of cigarettes across all states was $5.72, with prices ranging from $4.01 to $7.55 due to variations in state taxes and retail business practices. The incentive to profit by evading payment of taxes rises with each tax rate hike imposed by federal, state, and local governments. High state tobacco excise taxes make it profitable for individuals and groups to risk crossing state borders to smuggle and engage in other illegal sales activities. For example, solely by purchasing cigarettes in a low tax state and reselling them in a high tax state a seller can make a profit up to $23,000 on 10 cases of cigarettes (a car load), up to $90,000 on 50 cases (a van load), and up to $465,000 for 200 cases (a small truck load). The diversion of tobacco can occur anywhere on the production or supply chain – manufacturers, wholesalers, and retail outlets have been involved in diverting tobacco products. Counterfeit and authentic contraband tobacco products are available through illegal “black market” sources, through the Internet, and at legally operated retail locations. According to ATF, since 2000, organized criminal groups have become increasingly active in the diversion of tobacco products, particularly cigarettes, and are running larger scale and more complicated diversion schemes. The schemes have included the use of counterfeit tax stamps, counterfeit cigarettes, shell companies, money laundering, and fraudulent tobacco rebate forms. According to ATF, alcohol diversion that rises to the level of a federal offense is not as prevalent as tobacco diversion because alcohol is harder to transport in larger quantities than tobacco and the manufacturing of illegal alcohol is limited to specific geographic areas of the country. Consequently, alcohol diversion is generally investigated by state tax or law enforcement entities instead of ATF. Therefore, this report focuses predominantly on tobacco diversion. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2009. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Report Number I-2009-005; Accessed June 4, 2013 at: http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/ATF/e0905.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/ATF/e0905.pdf Shelf Number: 128932 Keywords: Cigarette Smuggling (U.S.)Organized CrimeTax Avoidance |
Author: Barbour, Aaron Title: Supporting People to Legitimise Their Informal Businesses Summary: There is evidence that an increasing number of people are engaged in informal work, and the scale of these activities makes them an important part of the UK’s local and regional economies. Government policy responses could include a laissez-faire approach, deterrence or encouraging compliance, but have, in the main, been punitive. There needs to be better understanding of the most effective ways to tackle the informal economy in order to choose the best combination of policies. The report: • presents the scale and range of the informal economy in the UK; • defines what is meant by formalisation and current practices; • examines the activities involved in formalisation, the length and cost of the service and the key characteristics needed by the supporting organisation; and • presents a model of a formalisation service that organisations might replicate to help informal entrepreneurs to legitimise their businesses. Details: York, UK: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2013. 112p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 4, 2013 at: http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/supporting-people-informal-businesses Year: 2013 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/supporting-people-informal-businesses Shelf Number: 128959 Keywords: Business CrimesInformal Economy (U.K.)Tax AvoidanceUnderground Economy |
Author: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Title: Tobacco Underground: The Global Trade in Smuggled Cigarettes Summary: Tobacco Underground is a project of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Working with reporters in more than a dozen countries, ICIJ is charting the frontlines of the illicit traffic in cigarettes. During 2000 and 2001, a team of reporters from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists broke a series of landmark stories exposing how leading tobacco companies worked with criminal networks to smuggle cigarettes around the world. Relying on interviews with insiders and thousands of internal industry documents, the unique team - based in six countries - pieced together how smuggling played a key role in big tobacco's strategy to boost sales and increase market share. Those revelations, and others that followed, helped prompt lawsuits and government inquiries, and led to promises of a global crackdown on the illegal trade in tobacco. Details: Washington, DC: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 2009. 190p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 15, 2014 at: http://cloudfront-9.icij.org/sites/icij/files/tobaccounderground_0.pdf Year: 2009 Country: International URL: http://cloudfront-9.icij.org/sites/icij/files/tobaccounderground_0.pdf Shelf Number: 132375 Keywords: Cigarette SmugglingIllegal TradeOrganized CrimeTax AvoidanceTobacco |