So I get a letter from my state Dept. of Revenue today wanting their tax money on some cigars I purchased from New Havana Cigars. I went to their website and see the print about how we are responsible. My question is : How in God's name did they know that. Did New Havana report to Wyoming that I bought cigars?? Does it vary from state to state because I have been buying from CI and they have never done that.
It does say they received info from the State Info Sharing

I guess that I will really have to think twice about purchasing from NHC anymore.
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How did you pay for them?
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With a debit card.
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Perhaps the credit company (if your card has a logo on it) reported it.
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They probably got flagged at the post office as cigars, the state realized it, sent an inquiry to NHC. NHC per their privacy policy complied, and here we are. It shouldn't be that bad, Wyoming's tobacco tax isn't that bad.

Or the cigars could have been drop shipped... either way, I bet it was the post office.

I'm not sure if CI is the same way, but they may use UPS as their courier, which, of course, circumvents the USPS system.
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Wyoming is 20%, could be worse I suppose.
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It hasn't happened to me (I've never shopped there), but I understand the same thing happened to another BOTL from New Jersey. IIRC, it has to do with NHC's responsibility to report to its home state, which shares the information with the states to which the items are sent. It was enough to make me decide not to deal with them, even though NHC seems like a good place to shop.
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Send them back a letter stating that you will gladly pay the tax, but you would also have to claim the purchase as a loss on your tax return due to the fact that they were destroyed in a fire.

Seriously, you could try to get out of it, but it is not worth the hassle IMO. They will get their money one way or another (ie deduct it from your income tax refund or garnish your wages). Many states are hurting financially and trying to squeeze all the revenue possible from their serfs...er residents.
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Man, that blows.
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I've never heard of anything like this. That is crazy!
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Actually all states can do it. Anytime you buy something out of states and are not charged sales tax, you are supposed to report it to the state and pay the appropriate taxes. This is not limited to cigars, all products.
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The only way that the state could have known how much to tax is through cooperation from NHC. You should give NHC a call and ask them about it -- ask them how and why and all that, especially given that most other online retailers do not do this...
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:-)
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I owe NHC an apology. I researched what I remembered from a jungle far far away and it was actually a different vendor (in Georgia, who happens to have the same "H"), who reported the sale to Georgia who in turn "must have" reported it to NJ through a reciprocal agreement. The vendor basically said that in Georgia, taxes aren't paid on out of state sales and he had to report a "Schedule C" with the name/addy/invoice for all out of state sales. I assume NHC has the same situation, but I could very well be wrong.

I did find a blog post from CigarAdvisor with an explanation of what I'm talking about.

CigarAdvisor Link

I can't find any fault with the vendor if this is the case. It appears to be about the states sharing information.
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I don't find fault with the vendor either, I just thought it odd until that I saw the paragraph on their website. I just didn't realize they do that whole state share thing. I never had the pleasure of getting one of those letters.
Live and learn.

I did call the State and ask them why that they wrote the letter on June 8th and failed to mail it until August 17th, and that I was not going to pay any penalties since they want the money immediately. So it was kinda funny to hear them get all concerned about how they "lost" the letter for 2 months.
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They had to hire someone to find the lost letter, hence the reason why they want you to pay immediately.
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