They instruct the people who are supposed to instruct the rest of us how to comply with the law, but they can’t figure it out themselves:
New Jersey’s biggest purveyor of legal education has notified 15,000 customers that they may owe years of back taxes.
The Institute of Continuing Legal Education recently learned it should have been charging sales tax on the books, CDs, videotapes and audiotapes it sells and is working with the state to try to collect the money. …
[ICLE Executive Director Lawrence] Maron says ICLE was operating on the basis of a legal opinion, which turned out to be wrong, that, as a nonprofit entity, it did not have to collect sales tax. …
[New Brunswick, N.J. solo attorney Ann] Kiernan says she particularly resents that ICLE plans to turn over a list of who bought what to the state but has not offered to give lawyers information about their own past purchases.
(Mary Pat Gallagher, “CLE Customers Told They Have to Pay Back Taxes on Products”, New Jersey Law Journal, Jul. 11).
3 Comments
Wait a second, isn’t the business liable for sales taxes? It seems silly to chase consumers when the culpable entity (and the money from the untaxed purchases) is in one convenient location.
Oh, no, Jim, that would make things too simple. In most places it’s a sales and “use” tax, which means it just wouldn’t be FAIR to let the business pay for what you’re using!
When I started my first company I discovered that paying sales tax on behalf of my customers (and thus having easy to understand prices featuring even numbers and no confusion at checkout) is a crime. Apparently nobody in government can see the utility in having something priced at $500 actually cost $500, but they could DEFINITELY see the utility in punishing a business owner for ensuring the government got their money while simplifying things for a customer.
It seems that a company associated with educating the legal community should have known this law. But its an honest mistake. Just own up to it and pay it off.