Inconsistency
My post yesterday (scroll down to the next item) about the state's sales tax prompted some readers to post comments about the state's "use tax," which you can read. I also got an interesting email from a reader, "zoogler," who notes that the state "wants it both ways" on sales and use taxes. The "use tax," for those of you who don't know, is the state's attempt to collect sales taxes on things you buy in other states. Most states that have sales taxes also have use taxes. If you buy anything - furniture, a car, a candy bar - in another state and bring it in to Tennessee and use it here, you are supposed to send Tennessee a payment equivalent to the sales tax you would have paid had you bought it here. They call it the "use" tax. The state has reciprocal agreements with other states to track sales of large items like furniture and cars to Tennesseans, and charges the purchaser the difference between the sales tax they already paid to the other state and the sales tax they would have paid in Tennessee.

Because the state has no uniform collection mechanism for the use tax for all purchases, I contend it is de facto a voluntary tax, and, again because the use tax is not uniformly and fairly enforced, it in all likelihood violates the basic constitutional principle of equal protection under law.

Zoogler makes another interesting observation. Tennessee law makes it clear that Tennessee indeed "wants it both ways." He cites the Tennessee Code Annotated:

TCA 1320-5-1-.29 NONRESIDENT PURCHASES.
(1) If a nonresident of Tennessee purchases articles of tangible personal property or taxable services from a dealer in Tennessee, and the sale is delivered to the vendee in Tennessee, the sale is not one of interstate commerce, and is subject to the Sales Tax. It is immaterial that the property will be later transported outside the State.

Interesting. Tennessee wants Tennesseans to pay taxes to Tennessee on things you buy in other states, but doesn't want non-Tennesseans to pay the use taxes in other states - or at least doesn't want them to use their "use tax" obligation in other states to avoid paying Tennessee sales tax.