KaiserJeep wrote:I repeat, nobody has an obligation to pay taxes - especially if the tax board is not prepared to even ask for such.
OTOH, since you're talking about state taxes, unless you want to lie (perjure yourself) on your tax form, you are supposed to pay state sales taxes, at least for the state you live in, whether the vendor collects the tax or not. (Given the big fight with Amazon, and it mostly complying, I presume this is still true. I KNOW it was in KY a decade or so ago.)
For several years before Amazon started collecting such taxes, I'd estimate my purchases, and tell my preparer to use that estimate (if the state isn't going to bother to force the vendors to charge the tax, or enforce making most people pay it for such vendors, I wasn't going to bother with detailed records on that). By the time Amazon started collecting taxes in my state, practically all major vendors I was aware of were already doing that.
And, I realize I was probably a very TINY minority that paid such taxes. I just prefer to be honest and sleep at night.
So, I guess it depends on what you mean by "obligation". Are you obligated not to commit murder (which is mostly frowned on in the US) as long as you don't get caught? I would say yes, since, for example, deadbeats are OBLIGATED to pay their debts, whether they get away with running from them or not.
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After typing the above, I became curious, so I just looked it up, and obligation is defined as having BOTH a moral and a legal meaning, FWIW.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.