The
fact of the matter is this: it is not unlawful to sell a pack of
smokes. A pack of "rollies", or even a professional made pack, you as a
citizen have the right to trade them, sell them, what ever you want to
call it.
What we have at the Vets home, is an administration that wants the entire grounds to be non smoking. And they are doing this to force a reduction in the number of guys smoking, thinking that if they cannot afford them, they will quit smoking. Stupid if you ask me. Guys will just pay more for them, and we will have people digging thru the ash cans again.
A non smoking facility, including grounds, will be all but impossible to achieve until the new home is built.
In the case of the 4. We don't even know what crime they could be charged with. So lets see what they could be.
1. tax evasion, via the USE tax.
2. tax evasion - Tobacco stamp tax act.
3. what else? a possible distribution charge?
Now these guys did not go out and get those smokes. They were brought in. What they did was distribute them. This is like them buying 3 cartons, then trading at cost one of them to a friend. Nothing wrong with that. And most people see nothing wrong with that. And most people do not see anything wrong with going out of state to get lower costs smokes. That 2 dollar tax on each pack is not being used for heath care, it gets dumped into the general fund and wasted with all of our other tax money. So why even have it? Most folks see that as another money grab by the state, which has miss managed our states treasury and budget for over 3 decades.
What the home sees as an issue, is these are Manufactured smokes that do not have Michigan tobacco stamp on them. This is like you or I going out of state, and buying a bunch of smokes that cost less than if you got them here and bringing them home. And the administration thinks that is wrong.
Under Michigan law, (and i think this is TOTALLY unconstitutional), the USE tax kicks in when you buy something out of state. You are supposed to report it on your MI 1040 income tax form and pay the Michigan sales tax on the item. Doesn't matter if you paid another states sales tax. And I think that is wrong, but it is the law. I see this as being no different than if i buy something on line and don't have to pay Michigan sales tax. With Amazon, we do pay sales tax because Amazon has a warehouse in Michigan. But other shopping sites do not and when we order thru them, we do not pay Michigan sales tax. That is when the USE tax law goes into effect and it is the most violated tax law we have, and not much is done about it because the state cannot to much about it.
The state could push this as an issue.
2nd, the tobacco stamp tax act.. Since these are in fact, manufactured smokes, I believe the law says they have to have a Michigan tobacco stamp on them.
However, since these smokes were NOT sold at a retail level in Michigan, how does one get that stamp to put on them?
Again this comes down to personal trading, unless the state can prove that these 4 guys were selling them at a profit.
The MVAA, and the home had to act. They had no choice, IF the law was violated. However, this is a minor issue if it is because of the way it was done by these 4 guys.
The man who BROUGHT the smokes to the home is the one who is in real serious trouble.
The MVAA has been criticized for not enforcing policy. Well they are now. And its on 4 guys who are easy targets. That is what is upsetting so many people.
No matter what the MVAA and the administration does, it will look like they are bullying the veterans. Doing this will not help their reputation, which is already sour in the eyes of many people, especially after the bad audit which resulted in Sara Dunne's removal, and the latest fiasco from the MI AG office of charging 11 low level workers with criminal charges, while the AG office still has not held one upper management person accountable for the numerous crimes committed against residents under the previous administration.
Bottom line here.. What we are seeing is just another example from the old administration: Once a veteran is targeted for removal, (discharge) the home finds a way to do it, and these 4 were targeted long ago. After all, this administration under Scott has to get the population down to about 100 before the new home will be built. And this is one way to do it.
We can only hope that they find a safe place to go to.
What we have at the Vets home, is an administration that wants the entire grounds to be non smoking. And they are doing this to force a reduction in the number of guys smoking, thinking that if they cannot afford them, they will quit smoking. Stupid if you ask me. Guys will just pay more for them, and we will have people digging thru the ash cans again.
A non smoking facility, including grounds, will be all but impossible to achieve until the new home is built.
In the case of the 4. We don't even know what crime they could be charged with. So lets see what they could be.
1. tax evasion, via the USE tax.
2. tax evasion - Tobacco stamp tax act.
3. what else? a possible distribution charge?
Now these guys did not go out and get those smokes. They were brought in. What they did was distribute them. This is like them buying 3 cartons, then trading at cost one of them to a friend. Nothing wrong with that. And most people see nothing wrong with that. And most people do not see anything wrong with going out of state to get lower costs smokes. That 2 dollar tax on each pack is not being used for heath care, it gets dumped into the general fund and wasted with all of our other tax money. So why even have it? Most folks see that as another money grab by the state, which has miss managed our states treasury and budget for over 3 decades.
What the home sees as an issue, is these are Manufactured smokes that do not have Michigan tobacco stamp on them. This is like you or I going out of state, and buying a bunch of smokes that cost less than if you got them here and bringing them home. And the administration thinks that is wrong.
Under Michigan law, (and i think this is TOTALLY unconstitutional), the USE tax kicks in when you buy something out of state. You are supposed to report it on your MI 1040 income tax form and pay the Michigan sales tax on the item. Doesn't matter if you paid another states sales tax. And I think that is wrong, but it is the law. I see this as being no different than if i buy something on line and don't have to pay Michigan sales tax. With Amazon, we do pay sales tax because Amazon has a warehouse in Michigan. But other shopping sites do not and when we order thru them, we do not pay Michigan sales tax. That is when the USE tax law goes into effect and it is the most violated tax law we have, and not much is done about it because the state cannot to much about it.
The state could push this as an issue.
2nd, the tobacco stamp tax act.. Since these are in fact, manufactured smokes, I believe the law says they have to have a Michigan tobacco stamp on them.
However, since these smokes were NOT sold at a retail level in Michigan, how does one get that stamp to put on them?
Again this comes down to personal trading, unless the state can prove that these 4 guys were selling them at a profit.
The MVAA, and the home had to act. They had no choice, IF the law was violated. However, this is a minor issue if it is because of the way it was done by these 4 guys.
The man who BROUGHT the smokes to the home is the one who is in real serious trouble.
The MVAA has been criticized for not enforcing policy. Well they are now. And its on 4 guys who are easy targets. That is what is upsetting so many people.
No matter what the MVAA and the administration does, it will look like they are bullying the veterans. Doing this will not help their reputation, which is already sour in the eyes of many people, especially after the bad audit which resulted in Sara Dunne's removal, and the latest fiasco from the MI AG office of charging 11 low level workers with criminal charges, while the AG office still has not held one upper management person accountable for the numerous crimes committed against residents under the previous administration.
Bottom line here.. What we are seeing is just another example from the old administration: Once a veteran is targeted for removal, (discharge) the home finds a way to do it, and these 4 were targeted long ago. After all, this administration under Scott has to get the population down to about 100 before the new home will be built. And this is one way to do it.
We can only hope that they find a safe place to go to.
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