REVENUE ADMINISTRATIVE BULLETIN 1989-30

Approved: April 12, 1989

CIGARETTE AND TOBACCO CENTRAL HOTLINE REPORTING NETWORK – CATCH PROGRAM

RAB-89-30. The purpose of this Bulletin is to announce that on April 22, 1988, the Michigan Department of Treasury, in cooperation with 13 other states, opened a toll-free telephone hotline to receive tips from the public on illegal interstate cigarette trafficking. The hotline number is 1-800-29-CATCH. The “CATCH” program is designed to stop the illegal shipment of cigarettes across state lines.

The Federation of Tax Administrators in the following central region states cooperated to establish the hotline: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Agents in the Michigan Department of Treasury's Tax Fraud Division staff the hotline and process the tip information received from the member states.

The Michigan Cigarette Tax Act, MCL 206.509(b), prescribes a felony for such violation. The provision states, "[A]ny person who possesses, acquires, transports or offers for sale any cigarettes contrary to any provision of this act, wherein the wholesale price of the cigarettes involved amounts to or exceeds the amount of $50.00, shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not more than $5,000.00, or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both". See also Michigan Department of Treasury Cigarette Tax Rules, 1979 AC, R 205.414.