California discovers innovative new way to destroy small business

Rumor has it that the fastest-growing business in California is organized crime, thanks to legislative strangulation like this:

Many Californians ignore the "use tax" - the equivalent of sales tax but remitted by state residents for products bought from out-of-state retailers that did not collect sales tax...

...[A new state effort to collect use taxes has] prompted an outcry from small businesses [thanks to] the "qualified purchaser program," enacted by legislators in 2009 and in effect since last year. It calls for California to contact service businesses that have more than $100,000 in annual gross revenue, registering them for a program in which they have to fill out a new form detailing their use-tax obligations...

About 500,000 businesses, from chiropractors to dental offices to tax preparers, got the notice. But some were actually pretty small concerns; a landscaper whose supply costs are part of that $100,000 in revenue might only net about $20,000, for instance. Many were confused by the new regulation, and dismayed by the costs of filling out the form.

Diane Amble, owner of Smog Queen, a San Francisco test-only smog shop, got the notice in the mail a few months ago... "The letter said, 'Here is your account number, fill this form in and pay your use tax or we will estimate what you owe,' " she said. "I tried to call (the Franchise Tax Board) but they're incommunicado; you can't get ahold of them. This is ridiculous. We buy supplies once in a blue moon and everything we buy is from California; I try to do that to support the state. This is a shotgun approach to try to make money off the backs of small businesses."

Not to worry, California residents. You can count on a burgeoning black market to take care of most of your needs "under the table".

Which is, of course, one of the distinguishing characteristics of a Third World country.