When 0 = hot water

Have you done your Illinois income return yet?

The State of Illinois is going to create a huge headache and expense for itself with the new required Use Tax form for the income tax return. And it will create a state full of liars and cheats, most perjuring themselves when they sign their tax returns.

Understand the new requirement. Actually, it's not new. It's just newly enforced. Some of you may want to read the Amnesty provision.

How many books did you buy on Amazon.com last year? How much merchandise did you buy on eBay.com? Buy any cameras or big-ticket items online, out-of-state, and avoid paying sales tax?

You have some choices - you can "forget" those purchases, you can low-ball your estimate, or you can try to estimate accurately your purchases and cough up the Use Tax on those items.

Or you can put a big, fat Zero on Line 22. Care to guess whether the State's computers at the Department of Revenue are all geared up to kick out every return with a Zero on that line?