I missed it until now but two weeks ago VISA and other processors announced they would no longer accept payment for tobacco products. Many internet cigarette merchants have shut down operations as a result being forced to make sales by check only.

"Visa International, MasterCard International, American Express, eBay's PayPal service and others cut off the online tobacconists last month after being told by a coalition of states and representatives of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that virtually all such sales were illegal. Government officials said that merchants had not done enough to comply with age verification practices or to register sales with governments to ensure the collection of state taxes."

Holy shit.

I hadn't heard.

That was a big market.

No wonder. All those lost tax dollars.

Smokers are getting big "taxes-owed" bills in the mail from states:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-0...tte-taxes_x.htm

It is only a matter of time before local, state and federal gov't comes up with ways to tax the internet, and internet commerce.

Wow, first lottery tickets, now tobacco, BEER IS NEXT!!! :(

That's a huge bill to have to pay out of the blue for lots of people. That just sucks.

There are loads of moves similar.

Mastercard will not accept certain online pharma transactions for instance.

There is no tax on tabacco products when you purchase over the internet. A carton of Marlboro's , Camel, Newport premium cigs cost about $35.00 in most of the retail stores in the US states. You can purchase a carton of premium cigs in the internet for as low as $13.00.

The large tobacco companies...Phillip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and others were getting there ass kicked at retail by these internet companies.

It was these big tobacco companies and state representatives representing the tobacco industry, that put the pressure on the credit card companies to stop accepting payment through the internet.

This is the only way big tobacco can be profitable and ensure minors did not have such easy access to cigs.

Steady :rokk: "Hook-Em-Horns"

Wow... I can only imagine how pissed I'd be to receive a bill like that in the mail for taxes... raise taxes and costs in an attempt to get people to quit smoking... then by doing so - force smokers to find cheaper ways to buy their tobacco... and then when they DO finally find a way to get them cheaper - tax the shit out of them in one LUMP sum claiming that you are trying to help local retailers.

BULLSHIT.

I'm so glad I never started smoking.

But there's a bigger problem at work here... first it's cigarettes - because that's easy, so many people are anti-smoking these days, then it will be something else... it all snowballs... as soon as they get away with it once, they'll find something else "evil" to target... chip, chip, chipping away...

I'm already wondering when the bigger beer/alcohol taxes will hit... and if you can't smoke in a bar, maybe you won't be able to drink in one soon either...

:rolleyes:

yup, but dont worry, the liberals will be back in charge soon , and the world will be right again for the masses.

yeah cause big tobacco's main concern is to not let the younger generations get addicted to smoking!!

that would be very very bad!!!!

:rolleyes:


I can't believe I missed something so important to ecommerce ;/

no it doesn't. I'm sick and fucking tired of having my tax dollars go to smokers' health care.

um ... Tadow ... they don't.

at an average of $5 tax per packet, we're more than paying for it ourselves.

in fact, when I'm dying of lung cancer, I intend to milk every cent from the health care system I can. I've paid for it.

Lung cancer treatment is expensive , especially when you can't be insured anymore because of a pre-existing condition, that $$ either comes out of your pocket or (more likely) comes out of medicare. at ... ohhhh..... $100,000 on the cheap side, that's 20,000 packs of smokes you'd have to consume (SINCE the cig tax has been raised to $5), even at a pack a day ... that's 55 years of smoking.

I agree though, cigs are horrible ( I am so HAPPY I dont snmoke any more)

Tadow you make a great point .

Hmmm somewhere there is a stat page for the UK showing that cigarette taxes used for health exceeds expenditure on treatment.

I'll try and find it in the am.

Lung cancer treatment is expensive , especially when you can't be insured anymore because of a pre-existing condition, that $$ either comes out of your pocket or (more likely) comes out of medicare. at ... ohhhh..... $100,000 on the cheap side, that's 20,000 packs of smokes you'd have to consume (SINCE the cig tax has been raised to $5), even at a pack a day ... that's 55 years of smoking. [/b][/quote]
Dream on, TaDoW! I have an elderly mother. Medicare is a pitbull that won't pay for a bandaid and an aspirin. I'd love to see them paying anyone's cancer bills, or anything else remotely expensive for anybody. The way you talk you'd think they magically take care of all these items for everybody over 55. They don't. That includes paying for the mythical cancer treatments that allegedly come out of your pocket.

Just to make certain I know what I'm talking about, I did a search for facts. In 1988 Congress passed the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act. Even this did not cover the items you talked about. AND it was repealed in 1989. Nothing has replaced it. So TaDoW, give us some facts.

The Joe Taxpayer tune of yours plays well with the crowd, now back it up.

Lung cancer treatment is expensive , especially when you can't be insured anymore because of a pre-existing condition, that $$ either comes out of your pocket or (more likely) comes out of medicare. at ... ohhhh..... $100,000 on the cheap side, that's 20,000 packs of smokes you'd have to consume (SINCE the cig tax has been raised to $5), even at a pack a day ... that's 55 years of smoking. [/b][/quote]
so according to your numbers, every person who smokes gets cancer and costs the government $100k?!

what anti smoking propaganda have you been consuming?!

i'm not interested in hearing crap regurgitated off a brochure, I get enough of that from my parents. what facts do you have to backup your statement?

how many people die of lung cancer each year?
how many people smoke each year?
how much money does the government contribute to pay for *any* cancer treatment?

20 000 packs of cigarettes at $5 tax a packet = $100k
1 person with a pack a day habit (365 x 5) = $1825 per year
55 years OR 55 people with a pack a day habit = $100 375

so, does less than 1/55 smokers get smoking related illnesses?

Society also save money from people dying early - average smoker doesn't usually live past 70, and with less life expectancy comes saved money - lots of money... :unsure:

I remember reports on Gordon Brown promising £300m from cigarette taxes to support the NHS in non-smoking areas, so it could be said that non smokers are a drain on my tax £$£$£

I'm so sick of the political bullshit on this issue - from ALL sides... it won't ever happen but I'd like to actually see something more *balanced* than the 2 choices between the Religious Reich or the liberal ass kissers... it's all too extreme IMHO and I don't see any better choices coming down the road for the next election either.

If we're bitching about what our tax dollars are spent on though, I could give you quite a list... Smokers? I'm sorry but they are the LEAST of our problems...

One thing has been proven by this exercize if nothing else... tobacco will never be outlawed in this country... our government couldn't survive without all those taxes they make off it... just look @ the figures for INTERNET SALES alone - and imagine how much they make from all those local sales @ the corner market... BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars in taxes... this is BIG business for the government... it will never go away...

:ph34r:

Interesting that the merchants didn't bring up to the government the fact that a valid cc IS a form of age verification according to the government. And since you can't use the cc JUST to verify age, ONLY the buyers would be age verified.

Does sound a bit like the tobacco lobby got involved here imo.