CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
April 13, 2010 08:11 PM UTC
20 Comments
It seemed like an easy & fair way to increase tax revenue – enforce the existing use tax law. Sounded good to me at first too. Unfortunately, when you dive in to it – OMG it’s a fucking nightmare. If the state and localities actually try enforcing this my guess is we’ll see a revolt that makes TABOR look tame in comparison. (Note: this post ties in to
for a company in MN that sells work uniforms and such throughout the country.
Don’t get him started on Colorado municipal use tax. And to top it off, many of the municipalities can’t accept e-checks so he has to actually mail them in.
There is an answer and it all starts at repealing TABOR.
Is a necessary complement to the sales tax because without it, sales tax evasion would be frequent and easy.
Have you ever made a purchase in a city other than where you live, and then brought that item home to use at home? When you did, did you pay the use tax on the difference in sales tax rates?
Getting to the issue of use tax on Internet purchases – meet the industry half way. Put together a straightforward, sensible, and competent system. I’m not saying don’t have a use tax – I’m saying make it something workable.
Because it is brain dead to have a system so complex and mismanaged that companies spend as much determining what they owe as they do in the tax itself. Or do you think that level of overhead is ok?
that you should have consulted a tax attorney or accountant, who in short order would have been able to both explain the law and the practical approach to your issues.
For example, as a practical matter no jurisdiction goes after use tax from individuals, except in the case of certain big ticket items (like airplanes).
David asked you a simple, direct, yes or no question.
You didn’t answer it.
1. You seem to have contempt for the law (ignore ones that are too difficult to follow).
2. And contempt for businesses (who cares if the cost of following a law is excessive – the state will grab money any way it can).
3. And dismissive of poor administration by the state.
You can make the state the enemy of the people and of the private sector. But if you do, I think you’ll find that gives the Republicans a big leg up in the next election.
Project much? You seem to be describing yourself.
In fact, I am in compliance with my use tax obligations, since I live in an area that only imposes state sales tax, anywhere I shop I pay a higher sales tax rate than where I live.
Are you?
When I learned about the tax due for the difference in tax rates I thought of trying to pay it, but I realized there is no way I could ever figure out what I owe. I buy in a bunch of areas around Boulder, not to save a couple of pennies in the sales tax difference, but because it’s the most convenient place to get something.
I’m fine with paying my fair share of taxes. But when the government creates an obligation it is impossible to figure out – that’s bad. The cities should not have requirements that are impossible.
as a matter of administrative convenience, taxing authorities don’t really care about such individual purchases.
Local jurisdictions will pick it up on business audits, though. Denver is notorious for it. However, that kind of use tax is small change; the bulk of audit adjustments are for purchases that were never taxed, not those that were not taxed enough.
The businesses I work with manage learn and apply the law, including filing use tax returns. It’s a learning process, and it takes building accounting discipline and procedures to comply efficiently. Of course, if you don’t know what to do it will cost you more to comply. But now you know, and the compliance costs should be minimal going forward.
1. Your answer is individuals should ignore a law if the state is unlikely to go after you. That’s a sad commentary on your view of our laws.
2. The overhead I listed above was not to determine the practical approaches. Nor was it for personal taxes. It was listing out the expense of calculating the use tax my business owed.
3. You never spoke to my central request – why won’t the state put together a straightforward, sensible, and competent system? Do you think it’s fine that we have such a messed up system administered by a do-nothing director?
Finally it does not all start & end with TABOR – that’s a cop-out. TABOR does not require that we have a complex high-overhead system. TABOR does not require that the Director of the Department of Revenue do nothing.
How about speaking to the problems listed above?
Home-rule cities are created by the constitution, and the DOR can do nothing about that.
So you’re saying you never speed?
Unlike you, I’ll answer your question – yes I have driven over the speed limit at times. And when I’ve received a ticket I’ve paid it.
As to home-rule cities, I’ve been talking about what is under the control of DOR – and that is a mess, and could be significantly improved if it was under competent leadership and if the state legislature revised the state laws.
You’re really big on excuses and not much for actually stepping up to fix things. By any chance do you work for the Dept of Revenue?
What have I excused? I said I pay my use tax liability–which happens to be zero. And when I had a business, I paid my company’s use tax liability, as well.
And speeding is breaking the law, not just when you get a ticket, so your answer is b.s. Now, having copped to knowledge of how use tax works, are you going to start filing a consumer use tax return? I kind of doubt it.
And you answered your own question by dismissing it. The state cannot adopt a rational sales tax system (for example, tax all goods and services, like New Mexico does) because of TABOR.
As to paying the sales tax difference – I checked and Superior and Broomfield have higher sales tax rates than Boulder so I’m good for 99% of my shopping.
As to TABOR – it doesn’t say you can’t change the system, just that it has to be put to a vote. So let’s get the legislature to propose a sane system and put it up to a vote.
Now if you want to say that until a given TABOR measure is passed by the voters there are things we cannot do, then I’ll agree with you.
So we sent in our use tax payments for the last 3 years to the state. And we received a letter back.
Was it a thank you? No.
Was it information about this year’s taxes? No.
It was a bill for $40.00 for a sales tax license for the last 3 years. Because we paid the tax for the last 3 years, we have to retroactively get a sales tax license for those past 3 years.
No one knows how to say thank you like our State Department of Revenue 🙂
But I actually like an impersonal, impartial bureaucracy. It’s the mark of any great civil society when you get the same treatment at the DMV as the DMV worker’s mother. 🙂
Or just a really nice company that remembers to pay its tax.
that someone in the software industry–the inventors of technical service hell–could criticize anyone’s customer service.
And I’ve generally found software companies to have good customer service. Hardware companies on the other hand…
I have to agree on that one.