Live Free or Die Taxachusetts!

As promised, here is a follow-up to my earlier posting about the Town Fair Tire case with Massachusetts. Thank you Governor Lynch for doing what we pay you for. Now that there is no Interstate Commerce Commission, I guess we'll have to wait for this trial to be escalated to a U.S. Federal Court.

New England Cable News, Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:44 PM PST
NH gets involved in border tax battle
(Alison King, NECN) - The sales tax battle between Massachusetts and New Hampshire heated up today. Granite State Governor John Lynch is proposing legislation to protect New Hampshire businesses from collecting Massachusetts' five percent sales tax. The launch pad for all of this is a case involving Town Fair Tire Centers. And that case has reached the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial ...

The thing that amuses me the most out of this situation (and there are lots of amusing/irritating aspects to focus on) is that Massachusetts is basing its right to collect taxes on the tires purchased in NH on the fact that they will be used in Massachusetts (by the Massachusetts residents who purchased them).

Though I live in New Hampshire, I USE my tires primarily in Massachusetts since I work about thirty miles across the state line. Do I owe Massachusetts sales tax on MY tires?

Then again, I get to pay Massachusetts income tax because I earn my income in Massachusetts. A fact which I have adjusted to since I should pay something to 'enjoy' the services of the great state of Massachusetts while I work there (such as road maintenance, snow plowing, fire and safety services, etc.)

I usually buy my gas in Massachusetts since it's more convenient to do so, even though it is a little pricier than the station half a mile from my house (in the wrong direction for my commute). Considering the trend in Taxachusetts, I think I will stop buying gas (and a lot of other items) down there.

Gosh, I am REALLY starting to sound like a native skin-flint Yankee.