PURPOSE: This rule prescribes the record keeping display, reporting and other requirements regarding cigarette sales in Missouri.

1. (1) A cigarette wholesaler operating a retail place of business or vending machine shall use a distinctive title for the retail or vending machine operation and shall keep records of the retail business and the vending machine business separate from the records of the wholesale cigarette business.
2. (2) In all cases where a wholesaler is selling, both as a retailer and a wholesaler at the same place of business, the retail business must be kept separate and apart from the wholesale business in a room separated from the wholesale business by a wall or partition and, in addition, inventories and other matters covering the retail business shall be kept separate and distinct from the wholesale business.
3. (3) The name and address of the owner of any cigarette vending machine in operation within Missouri shall be visibly displayed on each vending machine.
4. (4) Each owner and operator of cigarette vending machines shall keep a record showing the business location of each vending machine currently being serviced, which shall be available to the director or his/her authorized representatives at the principal place of business in Missouri of the owner or operator.
5. (5) Operators of cigarette vending machines shall load packages of cigarettes in vending machines so that if any packages are visible while in the machine the tax stamp affixed thereto or the meter impression thereon will be clearly visible.
6. (6) Owners and operators of cigarette vending machines who are not licensed cigarette wholesalers shall only purchase tax-stamped or tax-imprinted packages of cigarettes. Owners and operators shall keep records indicating the wholesaler that affixed the tax stamps or meter impressions to packages of cigarettes.
7. (7) No manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer shall refuse to permit the director or his/her duly authorized representatives to examine records, papers, files and equipment pertaining to the person’s business made taxable by Chapters 66, 149 and 210, RSMo. No person shall make an incomplete, false or fraudulent return, or attempt to do anything to evade full disclosure of the facts or to avoid payment in whole or in part of the tax imposed by Chapters 66, 149 and 210, RSMo.

AUTHORITY: sections 66.380, 149.015 and 210.320, RSMo Supp. 1993 and 136.030, 136.120 and 149.021, RSMo 1986.* Cigarette Tax Regulation 12 was last filed Dec. 31, 1975, effective Jan. 10, 1976. Amended: Filed Feb. 18, 1983, effective June 11, 1983.

*Original authority: 66.380, RSMo 1967, amended 1993; 136.030, RSMo 1945, amended 1947, 1949, 1965; 136.120, RSMo 1945; 149.015, RSMo 1974, amended 1982, 1993; 149.021, RSMo 1974, amended 1982; and 210.320, RSMo 1939, amended 1969, 1976, 1978, 1993. Robert Williams and Co., Inc. v. State Tax Commission, 498 SW2d 527 (1973). In Missouri, or in the other states which have considered this question, tobacco and liquor cannot be sold without payment of both federal and state taxes thereon. Without payment of the taxes, their sale would be illegal and they would be valueless. Payment of the taxes being essential to the creation of a salable product and the amount of the taxes paid constituting money invested in the merchandise, they (the taxes) were properly included in the valuation of appellant’s inventories (for purpose of an ad valorem tax on goods in possession of a merchant).