Trade blocked

long_ashes

So... I didn't realize it was illegal for us to send stogies through the mail? USPS and UPS both told me that you are not supposed to send cigars. So I guess I'll have to prepackage them up first then ship them off. That really ticks me off. WTF!

phobicsquirrel

Really? I never heard that before. Did they say why?

long_ashes

Either had I. I've shipped cigars before by mail. They just said due to federal regulations they could lose their job. Bullshit I tell you!

DSWarmack

Try slipping them in when some customs official is breathing down your neck! It is absurd to think that its not legal to send a little bit of happiness in the mail to a friend.

millennium115

*** bro......thats a first.....ive been sending cigars for sometime now....what i do is i pick up about 10 of those small box packages( the flat rate ones), which are free.....and leave them in my car...when i want to send off cigars, i package them all up at home and when i show up to the post office, i either gotot the self help machine ( dont have to see or talk to a teller), or i go up in line and hand them over, and say no to all their questions about perisable or hazardous......cause cigars are not...... hope this helps.....dont know why they told you, maybe you got someone new.... stav

DSWarmack

You shoulda told them they're federal employees, they're not getting paid anyways.

xmacro

meh; if anyone asks, I just say it's hobby supplies. Works for customs too

docbp87

They are wrong about that. You can't mail cigarettes, and a few other tobacco products. Cigars are legal to mail, but most postal employees don't know how to read, much less understand the law...

The Cank

docbp87:

They are wrong about that. You can't mail cigarettes, and a few other tobacco products. Cigars are legal to mail, but most postal employees don't know how to read, much less understand the law...

I almost had this happen once but as stated it is only cigarettes that can not be shipped.

Redtailhawkoz

it is Illegal to send CIgars through the mail due to State and Federal Tax Laws unless it is from a Vender. Here is the kicker In talking with some Men i Herf with they told me to STOP Buying any Cigars On Line as an ONLINE purchase, ALWAYS CALL your Rep so there is No On Line purchase Record... here in California they are going after people for thier on line purchases and Charging them taxes..... One of the men was personaly charged 693 Bucks for Taxes he hadnt paid for on line purchaes....... Food for thought. My friend I deal with at the USPS that shal remain Anonymous told me to NEVER claim what you have In your Boxes when you send them out, always Say its something else. All the truth.........

Goldy

I had this happen to me recently too, it turns out Cigiretts are illegal to send but cigars are just fine to mail.

long_ashes

Yeah according to this: http://www.usps.com/pactact/ it says cigars are excluded. Those ladies didn't know what they were talking about. I'll just prepackage it anyways and go to the post office near where I live instead of the one by my work. Lame.

bigharpoon

That stinks. I love my post office, the post-master is a professional Santa and he has a big bucket of lollipops for my daughter. Ahh...small town life. Of course, I always show up with the package all done up so nobody ever knows what's in there.

jsnake

My USPS office was seriously misinformed as well. It is not illegal to send cigars in the mail. I just filled out customs forms to send 2 packages overseas and they checked a book to be sure it wasn't against those country's regulations and cleared my packages to launch. It is illegal to send other tobacco products. The thing with cigars is that we as individuals are responsible for reporting what we get in the mail to the state and paying taxes on them. That is the case with most states anyways. I have mailed at least 100 packages with cigars and have researched this after a misinformed USPS employee gave me a hard time.

RCY Cigars

Okay, this is one I know. I just had this happen to me the other day. Customs open a box I was bombing someone to the states with and held it. DSWarmack can tell you it's like that on a military post for shipping out. This week I had to go to a meeting with customs and my 1SG. They explain that because it is tobacco in the products. There would have to be a tax on it. And you can't tax a gift. He went on to say people like DSWarmack and JSizzle(these are examples), people down range. Meaning , Afgan., Iraq places like this. A soldier or contractor won't be able to get the things you can get in the states. So you can send them taxable items but in small amounts. As far as the states go, you are not suppose to mail tobacco because of the same thing. He went on to tell me thats why, if you get a package from a business saleing you tobacco. In the fine line it's going to say something like you are responsible for paying taxes on these items unless you live in that state. So where ever you get your products from, if you leave in that state you are good on taxes. If not it's on you to pay it and that's why your not suppose to. This blew my mind, here it is. I'm being counseled about paying taxes on cigars. Go figure....

phobicsquirrel

docbp87:

They are wrong about that. You can't mail cigarettes, and a few other tobacco products. Cigars are legal to mail, but most postal employees don't know how to read, much less understand the law...

ooo that's harsh... though funny.

phobicsquirrel

Redtailhawkoz:

it is Illegal to send CIgars through the mail due to State and Federal Tax Laws unless it is from a Vender. Here is the kicker In talking with some Men i Herf with they told me to STOP Buying any Cigars On Line as an ONLINE purchase, ALWAYS CALL your Rep so there is No On Line purchase Record... here in California they are going after people for thier on line purchases and Charging them taxes..... One of the men was personaly charged 693 Bucks for Taxes he hadnt paid for on line purchaes....... Food for thought. My friend I deal with at the USPS that shal remain Anonymous told me to NEVER claim what you have In your Boxes when you send them out, always Say its something else. All the truth.........

Wow, so was this because of the sales tax in texas or the tobacco tax?

RCY Cigars

RCY Cigars:

Okay, this is one I know. I just had this happen to me the other day. Customs open a box I was bombing someone to the states with and held it. DSWarmack can tell you it's like that on a military post for shipping out. This week I had to go to a meeting with customs and my 1SG. They explain that because it is tobacco in the products. There would have to be a tax on it. And you can't tax a gift. He went on to say people like DSWarmack and JSizzle(these are examples), people down range. Meaning , Afgan., Iraq places like this. A soldier or contractor won't be able to get the things you can get in the states. So you can send them taxable items but in small amounts. As far as the states go, you are not suppose to mail tobacco because of the same thing. He went on to tell me thats why, if you get a package from a business saleing you tobacco. In the fine line it's going to say something like you are responsible for paying taxes on these items unless you live in that state. So where ever you get your products from, if you leave in that state you are good on taxes. If not it's on you to pay it and that's why your not suppose to. This blew my mind, here it is. I'm being counseled about paying taxes on cigars. Go figure....

And yes ZEEBRA, your not off the hook, KAPOWWWWWWWW..........

long_ashes

I called up the Post Office to "inform" them of their misinformation and the lady apologized to me and said she is going to educate her staff on the matter. Cigars ARE LEGAL to send through USPS. So i'll just send it when I get home I guess.

RCY Cigars

long_ashes:

I called up the Post Office to "inform" them of their misinformation and the lady apologized to me and said she is going to educate her staff on the matter. Cigars ARE LEGAL to send through USPS. So i'll just send it when I get home I guess.

Man, if that's true what you and Jsnake said. I give up trying to figure it out. And I'll continue to do what I do to make things happen.

bigharpoon

phobicsquirrel:

Redtailhawkoz:

it is Illegal to send CIgars through the mail due to State and Federal Tax Laws unless it is from a Vender. Here is the kicker In talking with some Men i Herf with they told me to STOP Buying any Cigars On Line as an ONLINE purchase, ALWAYS CALL your Rep so there is No On Line purchase Record... here in California they are going after people for thier on line purchases and Charging them taxes..... One of the men was personaly charged 693 Bucks for Taxes he hadnt paid for on line purchaes....... Food for thought. My friend I deal with at the USPS that shal remain Anonymous told me to NEVER claim what you have In your Boxes when you send them out, always Say its something else. All the truth.........

Wow, so was this because of the sales tax in texas or the tobacco tax?

I would imagine only state tax because I think the federal tax is already included in the purchase price. The state tax is included in the purchase price, too, if you live in the same state as the shipper. If you live out of state you are responsible for claiming the cigars legally and paying the appropriate state tax, which almost nobody does.

$693...he must have bought a ton of cigars!!!

phobicsquirrel

Okay... I thought so. Luckily it wouldn't apply to me, I bend over every pay check for state taxes. And always owe at the end of the year. I mean I can some-what agree with it but at another I have an issue with the state being able to dig up cc statements without a warrant or letting the person know.

bigharpoon

phobicsquirrel:

Okay... I thought so. Luckily it wouldn't apply to me, I bend over every pay check for state taxes. And always owe at the end of the year. I mean I can some-what agree with it but at another I have an issue with the state being able to dig up cc statements without a warrant or letting the person know.

If you live in Oregon and buy cigars from Ccom (Pennsylvania) then you owe Oregon state tax on them.

phobicsquirrel

how is that? I don't have a sales tax.

dennisking

phobicsquirrel:

how is that? I don't have a sales tax.

they may still want tobacco taxes though.

when shipping sticks, i use a third party shipper called Postal Annex. it's like a Mailboxes Etc.

Hayblet

docbp87:

They are wrong about that. You can't mail cigarettes, and a few other tobacco products. Cigars are legal to mail, but most postal employees don't know how to read, much less understand the law...

Truth

phobicsquirrel

dennisking:

phobicsquirrel:

how is that? I don't have a sales tax.

they may still want tobacco taxes though.

when shipping sticks, i use a third party shipper called Postal Annex. it's like a Mailboxes Etc.

Bastards!!!

fla-gypsy

Government run amuck, they have so many regulations even they don't know what they are or have the brains to decipher it.

Alex Svenson

For the record, our customers have nothing to worry about. We do not nor ever will we share our customer information with any state other than the state of PA. We are a PA company and do not operate in any state outside of PA therefore have no duty to report to any other state in the country. As a PA company we are governed only by Federal laws and the laws of the state of PA. On a much larger point, it is illegal and unconstitutional for any state to regulate interstate commerce of cigars. The Jenkins act which is a federal act does allow for the regulation of certain tobacco products but cigars are expressly excluded. States have no legal authority to regulate interstate commerce of cigars unless granted the right by the federal government. Some of these states are getting out of control.

DSWarmack

RCY Cigars:

Okay, this is one I know. I just had this happen to me the other day. Customs open a box I was bombing someone to the states with and held it. DSWarmack can tell you it's like that on a military post for shipping out. This week I had to go to a meeting with customs and my 1SG. They explain that because it is tobacco in the products. There would have to be a tax on it. And you can't tax a gift. He went on to say people like DSWarmack and JSizzle(these are examples), people down range. Meaning , Afgan., Iraq places like this. A soldier or contractor won't be able to get the things you can get in the states. So you can send them taxable items but in small amounts. As far as the states go, you are not suppose to mail tobacco because of the same thing. He went on to tell me thats why, if you get a package from a business saleing you tobacco. In the fine line it's going to say something like you are responsible for paying taxes on these items unless you live in that state. So where ever you get your products from, if you leave in that state you are good on taxes. If not it's on you to pay it and that's why your not suppose to. This blew my mind, here it is. I'm being counseled about paying taxes on cigars. Go figure....

Tell me they didn't go through the trouble of actually filling out a 4856 for that!!!!

RCY Cigars

Alex Svenson:

For the record, our customers have nothing to worry about. We do not nor ever will we share our customer information with any state other than the state of PA. We are a PA company and do not operate in any state outside of PA therefore have no duty to report to any other state in the country. As a PA company we are governed only by Federal laws and the laws of the state of PA. On a much larger point, it is illegal and unconstitutional for any state to regulate interstate commerce of cigars. The Jenkins act which is a federal act does allow for the regulation of certain tobacco products but cigars are expressly excluded. States have no legal authority to regulate interstate commerce of cigars unless granted the right by the federal government. Some of these states are getting out of control.

Oh my, thanks for shedding the light on the states. If you don't mind me asking, how about overseas. Germany persa, sir. Thank you....