Unenforceable Laws

While looking up information on the Pennsylvania Use Tax (which is another story for another day) I found a regulation that states that tourists in PA who stay longer than 7 days are required to pay Use Tax on items that they brought into the commonwealth and used while they were here. How enforceable is that?!?
Posted by Heather Daley on March 28, 2005, 10:05 am | Read 3028 times
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What?? Is Pennsylvania actively discouraging tourists? You mean that if we come to visit you we are expected to pay tax on our car, our clothing, our suitcases...whatever we use while in your state? That does seem very strange indeed.
Posted by SursumCorda on March 28, 2005, 11:26 am
Not that Florida has anything to brag about when it comes to unenforceable laws. One that has been proposed here is to make it illegal to drive at or under the speed limit in the leftmost highway lanes. This of course would make it illegal to drive in the leftmost lanes at all. You can break the law by exceeding the speed limit, or you can break the law by not exceeding the speed limit. Your choice. I don't think this one will actually become law, but you never know. In point of fact it would probably do less harm than our constitutional amendment mandating free babysitting for four-year-olds....
Posted by SursumCorda on March 28, 2005, 11:37 am
Here is the text of the code:

The use of tangible personal property purchased by a nonresident person outside of this Commonwealth and then brought into this Commonwealth for use herein for a period not to exceed 7 days or for any period of time when the nonresident is a tourist or vacationer is not subject to tax if the property is not consumed within this Commonwealth. This 7-day period is calculated on a cumulative basis within any 12 consecutive months.

It takes a while for my brain to parse that and at my second reading I thought I had been mistaken, but now I hold to my original interpretation. "Any period of time while a tourist" IF "not consumed within the Commonwealth." So I think your clothes don't count (they're not taxable anyway) but if you bought a taxable food item out of state, brought it in, and then ate it, technically, you'd have to pay tax to PA.
Posted by joyful on March 28, 2005, 12:58 pm
The way I read "consumed" after having a little experience in my accounting class doesn't mean that it has to be gone to be consumed. You're consuming the resources of your car when you use it even though it still has life left. You probably new this . . .
Posted by Janet on March 28, 2005, 6:01 pm
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