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The remote sale of cigarettes-via the Internet and mail-order-is a growing
problem.
At the end of 2003, there were more than 350 companies selling cigarettes
online and virtually none of them cheap cigarettes online were collecting
state discount cigarettes online excise taxes.
Conservative estimates find that 2 percent of all cigarettes purchased
in FY 2003 were purchased online, meaning discount cigarettes online
that an estimated 413.9 million packs of cigarettes were sold over the
Internet during the 2003 fiscal year.

Many of these Internet cigarette retailers flaunt their failure to adhere
to the Jenkins Act, passed cheap cigarettes online in 1949 to require
that all retailers assess and remit applicable state excise taxes for
cigarettes. Over the discount cigarettes online past
two years, nearly every state has increased or considered increasing
its state excise tax on tobacco for two reasons: 1) to raise revenue;
and 2) to deter smoking. However, both of these important policy goals
are being compromised by the loopholes currently in place, which allow
remote sales of cigarettes.
The remote sale of cigarettes via the Internet and mail order has cost
state and local governments discount cigarettes online
billions of dollars in lost excise and sales tax revenue at a time of
widening budget gaps. Even in the absence of additional tax hikes, it
is expected that budget gaps will discount cigarettes online
widen, not shrink, as more consumers evade state excise taxes by ordering
cigarettes from remote sellers.

These sites enable children to bypass time-honored age- verification
checks at convenience stores by ordering cigarettes from remote sellers,
since Internet sellers have little to no cheap cigarettes online age
verification systems in place. This problem will continue to get worse
because children are discount cigarettes online among the most frequent
and proficient users of the Internet.
Because the loss of business due to remote sales of cigarettes has had
a devastating impact on the country's 132,000-plus convenience stores,
the National Association of Convenience Stores is aggressively working
with Congress to eliminate loopholes that permit remote discount
cigarettes online sellers of cigarettes to evade taxes and
to allow children to easily purchase cigarettes.
As of rnid January, both the House and Senate were examining ways to
make sure that loopholes are closed and inequities discount cigarettes
online are addressed.

In early the months of 2004, the two bills will go to conference where
they will be reconciled. The Senate bill, in particular, in its approved
version, was not perfect, but NACS will work to strengthen the language
in the compromise bill that emerges. NACS will push to cheap cigarettes
online make sure that any solution: Both the Internet Tobacco Sales
Enforcement Act (H.R. 2824), sponsored by Reps. Mark Green, R-Wis.,
and Marty Meehan, D-Mass., and the Prevent all Cigarette Trafficking
(PACT) Act (S. 1177) sponsored by Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Herb
Kohl, D-Wis., would give governments the tools needed to enforce their
laws against habitual evasion by remote sellers. The discount
cigarettes online proposed House bill gives tools to the state
attorneys general, while the proposed Senate bill adds an additional
tool in the arsenal of the federal government.

Lockyer said the growing Internet tobacco retailers
"have helped hook our children on a deadly addictive product"
while depriving the state of revenue "it can ill afford to lose"
during a budget crisis, according to the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News.California
Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed lawsuits against five out-of-state
online cigarette retailers Tuesday, alleging they are selling to California
minors as well as avoiding responsibilities to pay California sales
taxes.Government officials in Washington and Oregon filed similar lawsuits
Tuesday, the report said, and other states are expected to follow.While
California smokers pay up to $58 per 10-pack carton in grocery stores,
online sales firms are marketing brands between $8.99 and $32.49 per
carton.Online cigarette sales, estimated cheap cigarettes online this
year at $2.2 billion, are expected to reach $5 billion by 2005 and cost
states $1.4 billion in lost sales taxes, according to Massachusetts-based
Forrester Research, which tracks online marketing.State tax discount
cigarettes online authorities estimate California's losses
are nearly $55 million this year as the state's budget falls $26 billion
to $35 billion short over the next 15 months. California smokers pay
87 cents per pack in cigarette taxes or $8.70 a carton, but Gov. Gray
Davis has proposed raising taxes on smokers another $1.10 per pack,
which would make California's taxes the nation's highest.

Lockyer's suit, filed in San Diego Superior Court,
targets Missouri-based Dirt Cheap Cigarettes Inc., Smokin 4 Less of
Virginia, Cyco.net Inc. of New Mexico, eSmokes of Florida and LLP Enterprises/CigOutlet
of Virginia. They discount cigarettes online are among
an estimated 167 online retailers, according to California tax officials.Cyco.net,
LLP Enterprises and Smokin 4 Less did not respond to messages seeking
comment. At Dirt Cheap Cigarettes, which bills discount cigarettes online
itself as "the last refuge of the cheap cigarettes online persecuted
smoker," a customer-service representative said the company had
no comment on the lawsuit.Dresslar said the attorney general's office
ran a sting on the companies, in which children under 18 used their
discount cigarettes online parents' credit cards to
order cigarettes. "We determined they could," he said. "It
was pretty easy to do."He said calls to the companies pointing
out discount cigarettes online the alleged offenses failed to cheap
cigarettes online create policy changes. The companies also failed,
Dresslar said, to discount cigarettes online follow a federal law that
requires out-of-state sellers to provide a record of the sale to the
buyer's home state.Lockyer's suit asks the court to prohibit the defendants
from engaging in the alleged unlawful conduct. The lawsuits cheap cigarettes
online also seek a combined total of at least $1 million in civil penalties.