WJBC Forum: It figures

Photo of the State Capitol in Springfield. (Photo by WJBC Staff.)

The Illinois tax system is as dysfunctional as the rest of Illinois government.

Illinois imposes a use tax, which in effect says, “If you bought items in Illinois, you would pay sales tax on them. If you bought them elsewhere, whether over the internet, or mail order or when traveling outside of Illinois, you cheated us out of our sales tax on those items, so we’re going to impose a tax on your use of the items equal to the tax you cheated us out of by buying them out of state.”

That makes some sense when applied to a car titled, and driven in the State of Illinois. But what about the meals your family ate while on a fishing trip in Wisconsin? You owe a tax on that? Yup. And the IL-1040 on line 23, instructs you in bold print, “Do not leave blank.”

But how do you keep track of that stuff? Most people don’t keep receipts or records of out of state purchases. Not to worry. The State is helping you out. The instructions contain a Use Tax Table to help you “estimate the use tax you owe.”

The table graduates the “suggested” amount by your adjusted gross income. Just fill that figure in and agree to pay that amount and you won’t have to worry about any pesky Department of Revenue agents knocking on your door, rummaging through your deep freeze, or inventorying your house for any telltale signs of untaxed purchases.

Otherwise, the instructions warn that, [W]e may assess the additional tax plus applicable penalties and interest. We conduct routine audits based on information received from third parties…” Basically, it’s a threat to coerce you to pay money to the state you may not owe, solely because you haven’t kept any records of your purchases.

This effort will get the state lots of money it isn’t entitled to from people too fearful of an audit to resist. But when that level of coercion falls short of producing enough money to meet the state’s insatiable need for revenue, combined with its diminishing tax base (due to higher taxes), I can see the next step: checkpoints on the Illinois borders with revenue agents who will ask motorists entering the state if they are Illinois residents, and if so, whether they have anything to declare.

After all, the state needs the money more than you do, and it can spend it more wisely than you can, right?

This is David Stanczak on WJBC’s Forum

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David Stanczak, a Forum commentator since 1995, came to Bloomington in 1971. He served as the City of Bloomington’s first full-time legal counsel for over 18 years, before entering private practice. He is currently employed by the Snyder Companies and continues to reside in Bloomington with his family.

The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Townsquare Media.