S-CHIP Required Reading

[Thrak]

Originally Posted by ChasDen

Unless I missed it there are no plans for a stimulus check like last time and I have seen nothing in the news that leads me to believe anything they have been discussing will put cash in my hands anytime soon.

Chas

$400 for singles, $800 for families. Cap is a salary of $75,000 a year for singles, $150k for families.

[vudu9]

Originally Posted by BengalMan

Jitzy,

See my breakdown a few posts above. The option that the B&M's have is to not keystone the tax, which some already do. Some B&M's add the state tax to the wholesale cost, and keystone the whole thing, others keystone the wholesale price, then just add the per stick tax onto the msrp.

Personally, I won't keystone the tax, I'll just pass it along. BUT, there will have to be an extra .12 cents (30% here in NV.) added on top of the .40 cents making it .52 cents because the state of Nevada will treat the .40 cent SCHIP tax as Cost Of Goods and TAX THE TAX! What country did I wake up in this morning anyways?!

[BengalMan]

My question is this, how is the floor tax going to be collected? It's not like the state that can walk in at any given time. Tobacco on a federal level is regulated by the ATF, and I'm sure they have better things to do than chase down a couple hundred dollars from a tobacco shop off the side of the highway in the middle of no where. In order to get an accurate collection, every purchase invoice from the distributor to the shop would have to be pulled, then accurate sales up to the day they are being inquired on would have to be pulled. All this seems like too much hassle. Maybe they will try to go on an honor policy? However, I highly doubt that as well. Who knows.

[ScottieM]

Save yourselves the hassle and heartache. Buy Cuban!

[hotreds]

Originally Posted by ScottieM

Save yourselves the hassle and heartache. Buy Cuban!

Apparently that will be next to impossible as customs will really clamp down on packages from certain central European countries!

Bad news all around!

[TheRiddick]

Originally Posted by BengalMan

My question is this, how is the floor tax going to be collected? It's not like the state that can walk in at any given time. Tobacco on a federal level is regulated by the ATF, and I'm sure they have better things to do than chase down a couple hundred dollars from a tobacco shop off the side of the highway in the middle of no where. In order to get an accurate collection, every purchase invoice from the distributor to the shop would have to be pulled, then accurate sales up to the day they are being inquired on would have to be pulled. All this seems like too much hassle. Maybe they will try to go on an honor policy? However, I highly doubt that as well. Who knows.

May not be as difficult as you think. Every shop collects and then submits sales tax to the state, most on a quarterly basis at least here in CA. If they, say, report floor stock of X and then their subsequent quarterly sales tax submissions greatly exceed that number it won't take long before they are closed for inventory and double checked. I don't think any shop would want to play that game as it will cost them far more in the long run than paying actual floor tax. The last place you want to deal with is state tax board, they are far worse than IRS to deal with and have the authority to stop your business until they check the numbers.

I thought floor tax is not part of the SCHIP deal?

[BengalMan]

Originally Posted by TheRiddick

May not be as difficult as you think. Every shop collects and then submits sales tax to the state, most on a quarterly basis at least here in CA. If they, say, report floor stock of X and then their subsequent quarterly sales tax submissions greatly exceed that number it won't take long before they are closed for inventory and double checked. I don't think any shop would want to play that game as it will cost them far more in the long run than paying actual floor tax. The last place you want to deal with is state tax board, they are far worse than IRS to deal with and have the authority to stop your business until they check the numbers.

I thought floor tax is not part of the SCHIP deal?

It is for RYO tobacco, which, in my area, a LOT of cigar shops stock it, and they don't stock a small amount of it.

[AD720]

Originally Posted by TheRiddick

May not be as difficult as you think. Every shop collects and then submits sales tax to the state, most on a quarterly basis at least here in CA. If they, say, report floor stock of X and then their subsequent quarterly sales tax submissions greatly exceed that number it won't take long before they are closed for inventory and double checked. I don't think any shop would want to play that game as it will cost them far more in the long run than paying actual floor tax. The last place you want to deal with is state tax board, they are far worse than IRS to deal with and have the authority to stop your business until they check the numbers.

I thought floor tax is not part of the SCHIP deal?

Same here, see three posts above. "Large" cigars are immune to the floor tax but I'm guessing everything else is not, especially "cigarette replacements" like small cigars and RYO.

[TheRiddick]

I still say that anyone not reporting correct floor tax is playing with fire. That said, and looking at the RYO increase in the SCHIP, that's a LOT of tax to pay and looks to be very painful. I would recommend any shop with stock on hand right now sell it at huge discount if need be so that come April 1st they have nothing to report or as little as is possible.

Don't forget that state tax boards have 2 months now to figure out which shops will owe them come time to report and collect. This is going to be ugly for the large shops we all buy from, Famous, JR, Corona, CI and others, they have plenty of those small cigars (cigarette replacements) in stock.

[mithrilG60]

I could very well be wrong, to be honest I've never given SCHIP more than a passing interest as it doesn't affect me one way or the other.

I recognize the sarcasm, but you're right it is wonderful. It's wonderful to not have to go tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars into debt just to save your life just because you were unlucky enough to be in a car accident or develop some rare disease, etc. It's wonderful not to have your doctor recommending procedures more because they line his pocket and less because they are required for your health. It's wonderful not to have to ask permission of some faceless corporate entity if their profit margin this month allows you to have a procedure required to save or improve your quality of life. No universal access to health care is a basic human right in the all of the developed world.... I'm left to wonder why the US joined the developed world yet?

[groogs]

The whole SCHIP thing really depresses me.

Originally Posted by mithrilG60

No universal access to health care is a basic human right in the all of the developed world.... I'm left to wonder why the US joined the developed world yet?

Heart transplants, liposuction, knee replacements, and elective health care is a human right?

In the US, Federal law gives everyone the right to emergency care, regardless of your ability to pay. The law entitles you to three things: screening, emergency care and appropriate transfers. A hospital must provide "stabilizing care" for a patient with an emergency medical condition. The hospital must screen for the emergency and provide the care without inquiring about your ability to pay. Hospitals cannot transfer patients until their condition has been stabilized. So in an emergency everyone has equal access to care. If its not an emergency, there are plenty of free clinics and reduced cost facilities around. My daughter chooses to not have insurance against her mothers and I advice. A year ago she needed a procedure done that was going to cost well over a grand. She did some checking around, filled out some papers waited a few months (not life threatening) and got it done for 2 payments of $159. All legal, performed by the same facility that said it was over a grand months earlier.

Chas

[macpappy]

Originally Posted by mithrilG60

I could very well be wrong, to be honest I've never given SCHIP more than a passing interest as it doesn't affect me one way or the other.

I recognize the sarcasm, but you're right it is wonderful. It's wonderful to not have to go tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars into debt just to save your life just because you were unlucky enough to be in a car accident or develop some rare disease, etc. It's wonderful not to have your doctor recommending procedures more because they line his pocket and less because they are required for your health. It's wonderful not to have to ask permission of some faceless corporate entity if their profit margin this month allows you to have a procedure required to save or improve your quality of life. No universal access to health care is a basic human right in the all of the developed world.... I'm left to wonder why the US joined the developed world yet?

I think we'll just agree to disagree on the health care thing. I've talked to other friends from Canada and they think the "universal health care" is a disaster and tell me horror stories about problems they have had. So you haven't had their problems and the system has been good for you. That great.

I also can't really say I've seen the problems you attribute to the United States medical system either because even though I was in a bad car accident that lead to me having back surgery, I didn't have any of those problems. But that is probably because I'm a military retiree and one of the benefits of surviving 21 years of active duty is I have access to health care with very reasonable co-pays. That being said, my daughter-in-law is a doctor (general practice) and she has to fight with insurance companies on behalf of her patients and not because she's "lining her pockets." In fact the hospital she is associated with has just canned a doctor for that type of behavior.

[Sr Mike]

Originally Posted by mithrilG60

I recognize the sarcasm, but you're right it is wonderful. It's wonderful to not have to go tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars into debt just to save your life just because you were unlucky enough to be in a car accident or develop some rare disease, etc. It's wonderful not to have your doctor recommending procedures more because they line his pocket and less because they are required for your health. It's wonderful not to have to ask permission of some faceless corporate entity if their profit margin this month allows you to have a procedure required to save or improve your quality of life. No universal access to health care is a basic human right in the all of the developed world.... I'm left to wonder why the US joined the developed world yet?

Wow, no sarcasm in your post at all. It is obvious you have no idea what you are talking about.

[Buena Fortuna]

Originally Posted by mithrilG60

I could very well be wrong, to be honest I've never given SCHIP more than a passing interest as it doesn't affect me one way or the other.

I recognize the sarcasm, but you're right it is wonderful. It's wonderful to not have to go tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars into debt just to save your life just because you were unlucky enough to be in a car accident or develop some rare disease, etc. It's wonderful not to have your doctor recommending procedures more because they line his pocket and less because they are required for your health. It's wonderful not to have to ask permission of some faceless corporate entity if their profit margin this month allows you to have a procedure required to save or improve your quality of life. No universal access to health care is a basic human right in the all of the developed world.... I'm left to wonder why the US joined the developed world yet?

I've worked in health care for over 25 years in Michigan. If Canada's universal health care is so great, why are our hospitals in Detroit and Port Huron filled up to 20% with Canadian patients who either can't access health care they need or can't wait for bureaucratic red tape delays???

[Thrak]

my bad, not a check, but a "tax holiday", whatever that means.

Mr. Obama's "Making Work Pay" tax cut -- a payroll-tax holiday for workers -- was scaled back. The package set the value of the benefit at $400 for individual workers, down from $500 in the proposal he floated on the campaign trail, and at $800 for couples, down from $1,000. The benefit would phase out for workers making $75,000 a year and for couples earning $140,000.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123436825805373367.html