Outrageous Nicotine Tax Bill Passes House Committee
https://vaping360.com/vape-news/86114/outrageous-nicotine-tax-bill-passes-house-committee/
25 Oct. 2019
"A tax bill that would make e-liquid much more expensive passed a House committee Wednesday, without having a single public hearing. If passed by the whole House and Senate and signed int law, the bill would add $10 to a 60 mL bottle of 12 mg/mL e-liquid." ...
The bill, which bases the tax on nicotine content rather than e-liquid volume, proposes a tax of $50.33 per 1,810 milligrams of nicotine, which breaks down to 2.78 cents per mg. Cigarettes are taxed at $50.33 per 1,000 (about $1.00 a pack at retail), or about a half-cent per mg (each cigarette contains about 10 mg, which adds up to 200 mg per pack)...
[They] didn’t consider the content of cigarettes, but the yield—the amount of nicotine absorbed by the smoker. But for vaping, they measure the content, and not the amount absorbed by the vaper.
Using that apples-and-oranges comparison, a 30 mL bottle of 50 mg/mL nic salt e-liquid would have an additional $41.70 added to the price, even though by content the bottle only contains the equivalent of smoking 7.5 packs of cigarettes, which are taxed at just $7.50.
If the tax is applied to DIY nicotine—and it appears that it will be—the cost hike is even more dramatic. The tax on a liter of 100 mg/mL DIY nicotine, which is the most common level used by mixers, would add almost $2,800 to the cost!
The bill is not final. It can change between now and when the full House votes on it—and then again before it makes its way through the Senate. But it should be alarming to every vaper, e-liquid manufacturer, and harm reduction proponent.
https://vaping360.com/vape-news/86114/outrageous-nicotine-tax-bill-passes-house-committee/
25 Oct. 2019
"A tax bill that would make e-liquid much more expensive passed a House committee Wednesday, without having a single public hearing. If passed by the whole House and Senate and signed int law, the bill would add $10 to a 60 mL bottle of 12 mg/mL e-liquid." ...
The bill, which bases the tax on nicotine content rather than e-liquid volume, proposes a tax of $50.33 per 1,810 milligrams of nicotine, which breaks down to 2.78 cents per mg. Cigarettes are taxed at $50.33 per 1,000 (about $1.00 a pack at retail), or about a half-cent per mg (each cigarette contains about 10 mg, which adds up to 200 mg per pack)...
[They] didn’t consider the content of cigarettes, but the yield—the amount of nicotine absorbed by the smoker. But for vaping, they measure the content, and not the amount absorbed by the vaper.
Using that apples-and-oranges comparison, a 30 mL bottle of 50 mg/mL nic salt e-liquid would have an additional $41.70 added to the price, even though by content the bottle only contains the equivalent of smoking 7.5 packs of cigarettes, which are taxed at just $7.50.
If the tax is applied to DIY nicotine—and it appears that it will be—the cost hike is even more dramatic. The tax on a liter of 100 mg/mL DIY nicotine, which is the most common level used by mixers, would add almost $2,800 to the cost!
The bill is not final. It can change between now and when the full House votes on it—and then again before it makes its way through the Senate. But it should be alarming to every vaper, e-liquid manufacturer, and harm reduction proponent.
