March 9, 2008
The Chicago Tribune on Chicago Sales Tax
Beating Cook's sales tax: Cook County's rate increase may push more shoppers to search for greener retail pastures in the collar counties, Indiana or cyberspace
By Monique Garcia and Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
After shopping around for a new laptop, Patti Jo Mitchel took a 40-mile drive from her home in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood to a Best Buy in Indiana.
It wasn't a sale that lured Mitchel over the state line. It was the sales tax.
"On a big-ticket item like this, I figure it's worth it," Mitchel said while making her purchase Thursday.
By crossing the state border, she saved more than $32 on her $1,075 purchase of a laptop and accessories.
And the difference in tax rates from state to state, county to county and town to town is only going to grow because of recent hikes by the state legislature and the Cook County Board.
. . .
"Consumers are under the same obligation to pay the use tax as any other tax," Ridgway said. She added the state has a number of audit mechanisms in place for enforcement, including working with customs on out-of-country purchases.
Also, those who leave Illinois to make purchases are required to pay to the state the difference in sales tax, Ridgway said.
But few people pay these taxes.
"It's basically tax evasion, and that's what officials should be concerned about," said Patrick Fleenor, chief economist with the Tax Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan tax research group based in Washington. "By definition, border shopping is about distance, but the Internet takes that all away. Now anyone can be a border shopper and avoid paying."
