There are companies that do this now, including the service of consolidating
purchases from multiple wineries into a larger shipment, thus lowering
per bottle shipping costs. The theory here is that the buyer, who
may never have set foot in the state, is taking title in California and
handling the wine over to the consolidator who is merely transporting
personal property from one state to the other. If this approach
is upheld in the courts, then it seems to me to be an effective dodge against
even the felony states, particularly since it tends to transfer the risk
from the winery, which is vulnerable because of licensing and such, to
the individual. Individuals are much less likely to be prosecuted
and the
shipper seems like he would be fairly safe because all he is doing
is transferring a person's property like a moving company. But, as
far as I know, this approach has yet to be tested in the courts.
If upheld, it seems to answer all the questions since, at the worst, the
states would look to the individual for sales tax, just as one theoretically
now has to
individually pay use taxes now for out of state purchases, but, even
if they decided to collect, no one would mind.
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