ALBANY — A judge in upstate New York has ordered State Police must give back a truckload of untaxed, native-made cigarettes. The decision deals a blow to officials pushing a state policy requiring tax stamps on tobacco products.
In a ruling that conflicted with the position of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the state Department of Taxation and Finance, St. Lawrence County Supreme Court Judge David Demarest called for the immediate release of nearly 26,000 cartons of Signal brand cigarettes made by Ohserase Manufacturing at a reservation of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and which were bound for an out-of-state destination.
The ruling, filed Wednesday, comes amid uneven enforcement of state tax policy, in which state-licensed tax agents are required to stamp cigarettes and remit excise taxes of $4.35 per pack. The policy has caused Native American retailers to cut back on sales of national brands in favor of native brands made by Indian companies that do not use stamping agents.
The judge said that because the cigarettes were being hauled by a common carrier under a proper bill of lading to an out-of-state destination, they are tax exempt. He left open the possibility that reservation-to-reservation transport within New York may be taxable. A spokeswoman for Schneiderman, would not say if an appeal is being planned.
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