Walmart Charges Illegal Taxes on Gun Safes

Feb. 18, 2014
Here's more ammunition for locksmiths to position themselves as gun safe experts. Can a Big Box store that doesn't even know what taxes to charge know anything about the safes it is selling?

Feb. 16--DANBURY -- With a six-generation family tradition of service in either the military or law enforcement, Sean Witoshynsky has been around firearms nearly his whole life.

So when he decided to purchase a gun safe to secure his weapons earlier this month, he went to the Walmart on Newtown Road in Danbury, where he plunked down nearly $500 for one that would do the job.

But after Witoshynsky returned to the store the next day to pick up the safe, he was surprised to find he'd been charged more than $33 in Connecticut sales tax. He knew that Connecticut state law specifically exempted gun safety devices from the levy.

"I said 'You're not supposed to charge tax on that,' " said Witoshynsky, who knew the law well enough to have a copy of the statute at hand. "I showed them that exact website."

They charged him anyway and, it turns out, Witoshynsky may not have been the only one who was overcharged.

Hearst Connecticut Media last week conducted a telephone survey of all of the retail giant's 33 stores in the state. Employees at the 16 stores where gun safes were available said the sales tax is being applied.

In stock at the Norwich Walmart, on Salem Turnpike, for example, there was a $497 safe that could hold up to 24 guns. The associate who took a reporter's phone call said, "I'm not sure if there is tax." He put the phone on hold and went to check. When he returned he said: "There is a regular sales tax on that."

In the Manchester Walmart store, there was a $397 gun safe in stock. The associate said: "It would be $425 with tax."

In Naugatuck, Walmart had a $100 pistol safe available. The associate said it would cost "roughly $106.50 with tax."

None of Walmart's employees seemed aware that gun safety equipment is exempt from the state sales tax, and has been for nearly 15 years.

"Yes, there is a tax on everything," a worker at the Walmart in Waterbury said when asked if the gun safes being sold there were subject to the 6.35 percent sales tax.

Tax free to encourage safety

Over the course of three days last week, Walmart did not respond to two emails and two telephone message requests left with its communications department seeking comment on the sales tax charge. A message left Friday with the assistant for David Tovar, Walmart's vice president of communications, was returned Friday evening by Brooke Buchanan, a Walmart spokeswoman.

On Saturday morning, Buchanan said she checked with 10 tax professionals at the company and that "Walmart is in compliance with the law and doesn't charge sales tax on gun safes."

She asked for a copy of Witoshynsky's receipt and said Walmart had no record of the Hearst reporter's earlier emails and telephone messages.

Later that day, when a reporter offered to email her a copy of the receipt, Buchanan said she had gotten a copy. The safe Witoshynsky bought was a new product and the SKU number had not been entered into the system, Buchanan said.

"Our system defaults to charge tax," she said, adding that they corrected the problem after it was discovered. "We haven't charged sales tax (on gun safes) since that law was put into place."

Buchanan said she could not respond to Hearst's survey of Connecticut stores, which found that taxes are charged on various models of safes wherever they are sold.

"I can't speak to what the associates said," Buchanan said. "There was no transaction that took place. We are in compliance with the law."

In a state where the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre has made gun safety a part of the daily discussion, eliminating tax on safety equipment is intended to encourage the use of gun locks and lockers. It is a first line of defense to protect children and others from the accidental or improper discharge of firearms.

"In principle, it's a good idea not to make people pay taxes on any safety items, because the state has an interest in protecting the public from getting hurt," said Marc Weber Tobias, a South Dakota attorney and security specialist who has written numerous articles on gun safes and gun locks.

"But it would be easy enough for Walmart to barcode these items to show they shouldn't be taxed," he said.

Connecticut is one of three states, Massachusetts and New Jersey are the others, that exempt "firearms safety devices," including gun safes, lock boxes, trigger and barrel locks, from state sales taxes, according to a 2013 report by the General Assembly's Office of Legislative Research. Washington exempts only gun safes from sales tax, the report said.

Hearst's survey found that even though taxes were charged on gun safes in Connecticut, they were not charged on lower-priced safety items like gun locks.

Consumers can seek refunds

Sarah Kauffman, a spokeswoman for Connecticut's Department of Revenue Services, said the law should not be a surprise to retailers.

"The statute passed in June 1999 and became effective for all sales on or after July 1, 1999," Kauffman said.

Asked about Walmart taxing gun-safety products, Kauffman said the Department of Revenue Services will investigate the retailer's apparent error and see that those who were taxed receive refunds if they paid unnecessary sales tax.

The revenue services department will notify Walmart that sales of gun-safety products are tax exempt and advise that taxpayers claiming refunds are due back the amount of tax paid, she said.

The department will "take appropriate enforcement action if this was not merely erroneous," Kauffman said.

The next step would be for the department to issue a public notice of the inquiry, which it plans to do Monday, and advise any taxpayers who contact the state of their "refund remedies."

It wasn't easy for Witoshynsky to get his money back. At first an employee told him "that he saw on a blog that he could charge tax," and refused to refund the tax.

Witoshynsky, a 20-year-old resident of Brewster, N.Y., who is a senior airman with the New York Air National Guard and volunteer Putnam Lake firefighter, filed a complaint with customer service at Walmart's corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. A short time later, he heard from the Danbury store and was told to come in to pick up his refund.

By that time, he wasn't satisfied with a refund alone.

"I called customer service back and said I wanted to keep the claim open, because the law has been in effect for more than 10 years, and I thought they should be up on it, " he said.

Later that evening, Witoshynsky said, he again heard from Walmart.

"Friday night the head guy from the corporate office called in a panic asked for the receipt," Witoshynsky said. "He said 'We might have been charging this through the entire state.'"

Witoshynsky provided the employee's phone number and first name to Hearst. When contacted, the employee confirmed he had spoken to Witoshynsky, but immediately declined to comment any further.

"I'm not authorized to talk about that," he said, and referred all questions on sales tax and gun safety products to a company spokesperson.

Under state law, anyone who paid the sales tax on a gun safe or any other firearms safety device has three years to apply for a refund, Kaufman said.

The taxpayer can either go back to the retailer to obtain it, or submit a refund request directly to the Department of Revenue Services, she said.

Staff writers Dirk Perrefort and Denis J. O'Malley and intern Nick Pasacreta contributed to this report.

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