KEEFE COMMISSARY OVERCHARGES SALES TAX ON PRISONER SALES (Copy of Complaint to Idaho State Tax Commission)
Dear Tax Commission: As I'm sure you are aware, Idaho Code 63-3619(c) requires that retailers calculate (sales) tax upon the entire amount of purchases of the consumer made at a particular time and not separately upon each item purchased - (often referred to a line item purchases). Despite this statute, Keefe Commissary Network (KCN), a company contracted by the Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) to provide retail sales of commissary goods to prisoners continues to utilize line-item calculations when calculating (Idaho) sales tax on these retail sales. Several years ago, a lawsuit was initiated in the Ada County court regarding this very matter. The Tax Commission made it clear that KCN had no exemption to allow the use of line-item calculations, however, because an employee at the Idaho State Tax Commission - without authorization - had told KCN and IDOC that they could utilize line-item calculations on inmate purchases, the court ruled that KCN had a [then] reasonable belief t...