The California’s state legislature has passed a bill outlawing Internet cigarette sales unless retailers provide the buyer’s name and address so the state can collect sales taxes.
The bill, SB-1016, would ban online retailers from selling or shipping cigarettes to California buyers if they don’t provide the name and address of the buyer, along with the quantity cigarettes bought and the amount paid for them.
“Internet and mail order cigarette retailers are making a fortune by thumbing their noses at the federal law and misleading California buyers into thinking they can duck nearly $9 in state tobacco taxes on every carton of cigarettes they order,” said the bill’s sponsor Sen. Deborah Bowen in a statement. “Since California can’t force these out-of-state retailers to collect cigarette and sales taxes, there’s no reason it should allow web-based and mail order tobacco retailers to continue shipping carton after carton of cigarettes to California buyers.”
The bill now goes to Gov. Gray Davis, who hasn’t indicated whether he will sign the measure.
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