State offers clemency on unpaid use taxes
The state is hoping to recover $5.6 million in tax revenue through a special use-tax program that will grant some clemency to people and businesses behind in payments on the confusing tax.
The 5% use tax applies to items purchased out of state or online and then brought to Maine — items for which the buyer did not pay sales tax here.
WCSH6 reported that Maine Revenue Services will allow taxpayers to calculate the taxes owed over the past six years and pay only the amount owed for the highest three years, avoiding any interest or penalties for the six-year period.
In 2006, a similar effort brought in around $7 million in use-tax receipts, according to Stan Campbell, the deputy director of MRS's compliance division.
The use tax, which has been on Maine's books since 1951, is the same type that raised concern for Internet giant Amazon in September, when the state of California began cracking down on taxes owed from the company's online sales to the state's residents.
Campbell said the use-tax program relies on voluntary compliance from individual taxpayers and businesses, however, and that the state does not intend to subpoena Internet records.
The latest reports put overall state revenue behind budget projections by $27 million.
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