PACT Act, which made it illegal to sell cigarettes across state lines," he explained. So Sadowski returned to purchasing cigarettes in stores and never thought more about it. But a couple weeks ago, he got a package from the Arizona Department of Revenue. "I was sick to my stomach; highly stressed," he recalled. "They said I owed $4,417 in back taxes, and that includes penalties and interest." Sadowski owes thousands of dollars because those cigarettes he bought more than five years ago apparently never included taxes. "Most notices of assessment or tax due from the department generally catch people by surprise," said Sean Laux, of the Arizona Department of Revenue. Laux said just because consumers buy products online, that doesn't mean they can skip out on the taxes owed to the state "For these individuals who are making purchases over the Internet, the law required you to fill out a form to report those so that the luxury tax was paid," he explained. The department was able to obtain records from online tobacco retailers and want the money owed to them from tobacco purchases. "Obviously, in this case, it does catch up with people," Laux said. "It's based on information that we receive and that we find, and then we try to collect the tax that's due." Sadowski said he wasn't trying to cheat the system. He just thought he was getting a smoking deal. "There's thousands of people just around the Phoenix area who buy stuff online everyday and I feel, right now, every person who bought anything online is in jeopardy if they did not pay state sales tax," he said.">