So I finally got around to doing my taxes last week. They were very simple so it was purely laziness, but as I wasn't due a refund it was all good. Now for the first time I noticed a line for reporting use tax owed. It's probably has always been there, and I just ignored it. The use tax has been around forever, ever since people started buying stuff from out of state catalogs, but today it is principally for stuff bought online. This is Pennsylvania specifically, but I'm sure virtually every state has something similar that has a sales tax.
Now there was a small disclaimer telling everyone that they are legally obligated to pay it for purchases where you didn't pay sales tax, but should have except they can't make the seller collect it. Of course there is no teeth behind this; if you tell them you didn't buy anything online they can't really do anything about. I've heard that they go after people who buy cars out of state when you transfer the registration, but even that might be urban legend.
Now it got me to thinking. How can I complain about the wealthy not paying their fair share if here I am shirking my responsibility to pay my just taxes. This isn't like the canard that the right likes to spout that people should just donate money to the treasury if they don't think they are paying enough. These are legitimate taxes that are due even though I will be the only one to know whether or not I pay them.
Now there are good reasons to want to pay it. I am a firm believer that society runs smoother if everyone just fulfills their responsibilities without being forced. If everyone just paid the use tax on their own there would be no need for new regulations of internet commerce and it would forestall any push for such regulations at a national level. I know, pie in the sky, but to a certain extent there are a lot of laws that everyone follows despite little expectation of getting caught so why not this one. Also, the state runs a mostly balanced budget; if it gets more revenue it will spend it on useful programs such as education and infrastructure. Lastly, it assuages my conscience.
So I decided to pay it. I went through my e-mail for order confirmations and totalled up what I had bought online over the past year. Nothing had been bought online to get out of paying sales tax, at the time it just seemed like an incidental benefit, so it didn't seem so bad. It was also a small amount and only a fraction of my total state taxes due. But as I was almost done I noticed a line suggested you add an estimated amount based on your income. It was at this point I was mildly offended. I had after all made a good faith effort to report all my purchases so it was mildly insulting that they were suggesting that I still likely underreported. It was at this point I almost said fuck you and just reported $0, but then I thought I may have forgotten something and I hadn't reported prior year purchases so it all comes out in the wash. For this year I am going to keep a running total of all my purchases and not pay the extra estimation.
Now you may be wondering what the purpose of this somewhat rambling diary was. Well, I was curious what everyone else does. Am I the only sucker to pay the use tax or does every one else also feel that it is their civic duty to pay all of their taxes in exchange for all the great things our government provides for us.