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Use tax is owed when a consumer makes a purchase from an out-of-state retailer who is not required to collect California tax.
That means online, catalog and other out-of-state purchases are not tax-free, as some consumers believe.
When the out-of-state retailer does not collect the tax, the consumer is responsible to make the use tax payment directly to the state.
The use tax owed is the same as the sales tax that would be due if the purchase were made from an in-state retailer.
With online and catalog sales up for the holiday season, Yee reminds consumers to save receipts, calculate the use tax due and make the payment to the state.
“The dollars lost to California in unpaid use tax significantly impact the state’s publicly funded programs and affect all Californians,” said Yee.
Sales tax applies to most in-state retail purchases of tangible personal property.
Online or catalog retailers are not required to collect tax unless they have a physical presence in California. The consumer is required to pay use tax when the out-of-state retailer does not collect tax.
The sales and use tax rate varies in California from 8.25 percent to 10.75 percent, depending on location.
The most convenient way to pay the use tax to the BOE is on the Franchise Tax Board income tax return by noting the amount owed on the line marked “Use Tax” and make the payment along with any income taxes that are due.
Consumers may also file directly with the BOE as a use tax consumer by filling out form BOE 79-B: www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/pub79b.pdf.
The updated 2009-10 BOE use tax estimate, released in a report titled Electronic Commerce and Mail Order Sales, shows the unpaid sales and use tax liability owed by the average California household is $61 per year and $102 per year for each California business.
California use tax has been the law since 1935. It was established to eliminate the price advantage out of state retailers would have over California businesses that collect and send sales tax to the BOE.
The $1.145 billion dollars in unpaid sales and use tax associated with electronic commerce and mail order sales that are not voluntarily paid is a significant component of the sales and use tax gap, the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid.
For more information on other taxes and fees in California, visit www.taxes.ca.gov.
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SACRAMENTO – As winter nears and the nights turn chilly, many people will choose to heat their homes with a nice, warm wood fire in the fireplace.
While there are many wood dealers eager to sell at attractive prices, how do consumers know they're getting a good, fair deal?
The only way to know for sure is to measure what is sold.
Firewood has its own special unit of measurement called a “cord.” Firewood, in units of 1/8th of a cord and above, must be sold by the cord or fractions of a cord. A cord of wood by law must equal 128 cubic feet.
To determine if there is a cord, the wood must be measured when it is “ranked and well stowed.” This means the wood is stacked neatly in a row with the pieces of wood parallel and touching with as few gaps as possible.
If, when measured, the width times the height, times the length equals 128 cubic feet, it is a cord of wood.
Prices per cord vary throughout the state. In Southern California, the range is from $230 to $480 per cord; in the Bay Area, $150 to $400; in the Central Valley, $100 to $275.
Consumers should be wary of terms such as “pallet,” “face cord,” “rack,” “rick,” “tier,” “pile” or “truck-load,” as these terms are illegal to use in the sale of firewood. If a seller uses such terms, consumers should be on alert for a possible problem.
Some wood dealers try to sell firewood from a pickup truck. Consumers should be on their guard, because a pickup cannot hold a cord of firewood. An 8-foot truck bed can hold one-half of a cord while a 6-foot bed can barely hold one-third of a cord.
Consumers are urged to get an invoice or delivery ticket that contains the name and address of the seller, the date purchased or delivered, the quantity purchased and the price.
The seller is required by law to provide this information in writing. Consumers may also want to take note of the license plate of the delivery vehicle.
If consumers believe they have not received the quantity ordered and paid for, they may call the seller to correct the problem.
Consumers should try to maintain the wood in the condition it was delivered, take a photograph and do not burn any.
If the seller can't or won't correct the problem, the next step would be contact with a local county weights and measures office as soon as possible at www.cdfa.ca.gov/exec/county/county_contacts.html or the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Division of Measurement Standards at 916-229-3000.
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“But the numbers were down about 29 percent from 1,384 sale s recorded the previous month,” said Peter Siegel, MBA, Founder and President of BizBen.com. “Sales activity was pretty strong earlier in November, but few escrow closings were scheduled for the last week because of the holiday.”
Most of the state’s large counties recorded fewer sales last month than in November 2009.
A total of 213 transactions were registered in Los Angeles County during the just-completed month, about 20 percent down from the 268 deals for the same period last year.
November-to-November declines also were recorded in Orange County (91 versus 97), San Diego County, (79 versus 91), and San Francisco, with 37 deals closed last month, compared to the 45 sold business figure from November of last year.
Sacramento County showed an increase to 42 deals last month, up from the 28 sales recorded in November of last year and the 26 transactions that closed in October 2010.
Santa Clara County figures are running pretty even at 51 deals in both October and November of this year, and 50 transactions in November 2009.
Siegel noted that the small increase over November 2009 sales statewide “shows the same pattern of cautious growth we see in other areas of the economy, including retail. We still need to see stronger fundamentals operating in the marketplace where businesses change hands.”
He added, “A decline in the value of small businesses, which is directly related to reduced earnings, is discouraging some owners from putting their companies on the market. They’re waiting for better times. Meanwhile, many buyers have an uphill battle getting purchase funds from lending sources so they can do deals.”
Long-term, Siegel said he expects the market to become much more robust. “The supply and demand are still there. Every day I learn about another buyer or seller or a broker who is using an innovative way of overcoming the obstacles presented by this difficult economy.”
The BizBen Index November report on the sale of small businesses in California, by county, (available at http://www.bizben.com/stats/stats-monthly-nov.php) is as follows: Alameda: 64, Amador: 3, Butte: 7, Contra Costa: 25, El Dorado: 6, Fresno: 31, Imperial: 1, Kern: 31, Los Angeles: 213, Madera: 1, Merced: 7, Monterey: 15, Napa: 2, Nevada: 4, Orange: 91, Placer: 14, Riverside: 41, Sacramento: 42, San Bernardino: 42, San Diego: 79, San Francisco: 37, San Joaquin: 17, San Luis Obispo: 4, San Mateo: 14, Santa Barbara: 20, Santa Clara: 51, Santa Cruz: 4, Shasta: 8, Solano: 17, Sonoma: 20, Stanislaus: 9, Sutter: 7, Tehama: 1, Tulare: 11, Tuolumne: 2, Ventura: 26, Yolo: 11.
BizBen.com is available via Twitter (bizbenlistings), FaceBook (bizbenbusinesslistings) and LinkedIn (in/bizbenlistings).
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On Nov. 23, Treasury received $11.7 billion in net proceeds from the sale of 358,546,795 shares of common stock in GM's IPO.
The underwriters in the offering had a 30-day option to purchase up to 53,782,019 additional shares of common stock from Treasury at the same price to cover over-allotments.
The underwriters exercised this over-allotment option in full on Nov. 26, and Treasury on Thursday received $1.8 billion in net proceeds from the sale of those additional shares.
“General Motors' IPO is a testament to that company's turnaround and the significant progress we have made continuing to exit our investments and recover taxpayer dollars,” said Tim Massad, acting assistant secretary for financial stability.
The exercise of the over-allotment option increased the overall amount of GM common stock that Treasury sold in the GM IPO to 412,328,814 shares.
In total, the GM IPO reduced Treasury's ownership of GM's outstanding common stock by nearly half from 60.8 percent to 33.3 percent.
Treasury has invested a total of $49.5 billion in General Motors.
In October, Treasury announced that it accepted an offer by GM to repurchase $2.1 billion of preferred stock – a transaction that is expected to occur in mid-December 2010.
With this repurchase and the IPO, taxpayers will have received a total of $23.1 billion from GM through repayments, interest, and dividends since the company emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009.
Following the IPO and the preferred stock repurchase, Treasury's remaining stake in GM will consist of 500,065,254 shares of common stock.
The proceeds from the GM IPO bring the total amount of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds that have been returned to taxpayers to nearly $254 billion.
The federal government originally had authorized $700 billion for the program, but that was later reduced to $475 billion. Total disbursements are put at $433 billion, according to a Nov. 29 report from the Congressional Budget Office.