So you're rushing to make that last minute LCD TV buy from Amazon, knowing that California will start collecting taxes on such purchases starting at 12 a.m. Saturday.

Well, you'd still be a tax cheat. And we're not just looking at you, Mitt Romney.

No, the state of California warned this week that …

… you still owe the damn sales taxes. It's just that California hasn't been collecting the cash directly from online retailers.

You see, when you file your California income tax return each year, you were supposed to have noted all those out-of-state online purchases you made (if there were California retailers involved they were required to collect the money already).

The state Board of Equalization:

California has required payment of use tax since 1935, and since then consumers have owed use tax on untaxed purchases made from out-of-state retailers.

Yikes, you say?

The BOE:

A new state law which takes effect Saturday, September 15, 2012, simply requires additional out-of-state retailers to collect the tax when they make the sale, rather than requiring taxpayers to report the tax on their own.

The new legislation could mean that more than $1.1 billion in uncollected cash will now head to Sacramento.

So, uh, yeah — go ahead and voluntarily report those pre-Sept. 15 online purchases. We dare you.

Happy shopping.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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