The state wants people to pay up for goods they bought elsewhere.
By Kathryn Skelton
Staff Writer

Shopped in New Hampshire, ordered from a catalog, bought gifts online or imported anything? The state would like its missing sales tax.

Please.

Maine Revenue Services has launched an advertising campaign to urge voluntary compliance with a law that says Maine residents have to make good with 5 percent sales tax even if the goods aren’t bought here.

It’s not an easy sell.

By a conservative federal estimate, Maine’s missing out on $30 million a year.

Since 1990 the state has included a line on the 1040 income tax form giving people the chance to atone for untaxed purchases, according to Stan Campbell, deputy director of compliance. There are some exemptions to the law, like if a product is for resale.

People have sent in about about $1.5 million each year. This past fall, during a three month amnesty period for all sorts of back taxes, another $1 million came in.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily the fear we might catch up with them,” said Campbell. “I think a lot of them know it’s the right thing to do.”

The reality is the state won’t catch up with lots of people. It’s hard to know who’s shopping in tax-free New Hampshire minus any sort of border patrol, Campbell said. “Massachusetts runs into the same problem on the other side.”

And the Internet is a large, unwieldy world.

“As technology improves, we are going to be trying to identify more use (or sales) tax debt that should be paid,” he said. “In fairness to taxpayers, you should educate them first.”

As executive director of the Greater Bridgton Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, Mike McClellan has heard retailers complain about people scooting over to North Conway to shop. He knows it’s an issue, but his gut reaction when he saw the Maine Revenue Services commercial: “I laughed.”

“I hope they didn’t spend a lot of money on it,” he said. McClellan’s skeptical people will be compelled to come forward.

When people owe income taxes, there’s paperwork, he reasoned. “Somebody could really look and say, ‘Wow, this person really cheated.'”

Robert Busick of Lewiston has shopped the Internet for books.

“I’m definitely not planning on giving the state anything,” said Busick, using the computer Thursday morning at the Lewiston Public Library. “If they want their money they should make it mandatory to take a certain percentage, no matter what.”

That’s an idea the state is interested in. Maine is involved in the Federation of Tax Administrators, a group working for a universal Internet tax. That would make it easier for e-merchants to compute, Campbell said, and easier for states to collect.

When sales tax scofflaws are caught by the state, he said the first step is voluntary compliance plus interest. If someone clearly has no interest in paying, MRS can seize wages or property, but, “those are extremes.”

The ads will run through the end of February.

kskelton@sunjournal.com