- 17 Dec 2015 23:59
#14633431
Just as a modern government holds retailers liable for sales taxes, not individual consumers, because it is the retailer who collects and remits the tax even though the consumer pays it.
Just as a modern government would attach the estate of a retailer (or, much more often, go to the head of the line of creditors in the event of a retailer's bankruptcy) to recover sales taxes not remitted. And just as in the case of the county sheriff, the tax liability would not depend on how much the consumers had actually paid in tax, but on how much taxable merchandise the retailer sold, as that is the legal basis for calculation of the tax. It still doesn't change who is paying the tax.
ingliz wrote:when the state audited county returns they sent the bill to the County Sheriff, not the individual taxpayer.
Just as a modern government holds retailers liable for sales taxes, not individual consumers, because it is the retailer who collects and remits the tax even though the consumer pays it.
Example:
Adam Fischer (b. ca 1736 d. 1787), Frederick County Sheriff, Maryland 1782- 85(?); collector of taxes, Frederick County, in office 1785.
His property was seized after his death to pay £7,690.3.0, tax monies he allegedly owed the state as Frederick County tax collector.
A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789 by Edward C. Papenfuse, et. al.
Just as a modern government would attach the estate of a retailer (or, much more often, go to the head of the line of creditors in the event of a retailer's bankruptcy) to recover sales taxes not remitted. And just as in the case of the county sheriff, the tax liability would not depend on how much the consumers had actually paid in tax, but on how much taxable merchandise the retailer sold, as that is the legal basis for calculation of the tax. It still doesn't change who is paying the tax.