Taxes

[MD Puffer]

Taxes.  No, not talking about the burden of your spouse's demands but rather the kind that causes cigars to cost more than they otherwise should.  This table applies only to the USA, but I'd be curious to know about other countries.  I know Australia recently imposed some kind of increase.  And poor old Canada has really stuck it to her citizenry.  

Here's the list.

I'm not surprised that Utah is #1 or that California is #3.  But Alaska, Montana, and Vermont being #2, 5, and 6 respectively are surprising to me.  

On the other end of the spectrum, I'm not at all surprised that there's no tax (other than sales tax) on cigars in Florida, but really blown away by the lack of tobacco tax on cigars in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC.  

I couldn't have guessed the order of taxation among the States in a million years.

[bpm32]

For a lot of those high tax states, all it really took was a few do-gooders and an apathetic voting population. California is weird because it's a great place to buy alcohol, but a terrible place to buy tobacco. I assume it's because of the wine lobby.

[Justin]

$.011/stick!  God bless Texas!!

[Stump89]

We are lucky in that sense, but PA makes up for it in other areas.  Fuel tax in this state is outrageous.  There are farms in PA that grow decent amounts of tobacco as well.  PA broadleaf is used in quite a few cigar blends.

[Thig]

It figures Washington DC would be -0-, politicians have a way of exempting themselves from the rules the rest of us have to go by.

[Scotch&Stogie]

1 hour ago, Justin said:

$.011/stick!  God bless Texas!!

Agree. As a native, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was a response to the American Heart Association or some other, equally as evil, entity. “You want a tax on cigars, fine 1.1 cents.”  I believe there was also a provision in there about future tax hikes that made it more difficult to increase the rates by removing it from cigarette and smokeless entirely, but it’s been too long. 

[bpm32]

44 minutes ago, Thig said:

It figures Washington DC would be -0-, politicians have a way of exempting themselves from the rules the rest of us have to go by.

Not sure if this is right--at least for cigarettes DC has the highest tax in the country, recently raised to about $5 a pack. Pretty much all that means is people will just go a mile to Virginia to buy tobacco.

[MD Puffer]

1 hour ago, Stump89 said:

Fuel tax in this state is outrageous.  

I guess I'm an official "old fart" since I have one of those "remember when..." stories.  

I used to date a girl who went to school in Maryville TN, and I'd drive from Jacksonville AL to see her on the weekends.  I'd cut through Ringgold GA, a little bit of a longer drive than necessary because Georgia had a ridiculously low gasoline prices.  I remember when I paid 76 cents per gallon- and believe it or not but this was only 1998ish give or take a year.

[Stump89]

3 minutes ago, MD Puffer said:

guess I'm an official "old fart" since I have one of those "remember when..." stories. 

Lol! I think that every day.  Just checked and PA has the highest gas and diesel tax of any state, 58 cents/ gallon.  At least the cheaper tax on cigars makes up for the drive to the lounge.

[Thig]

7 minutes ago, MD Puffer said:

I guess I'm an official "old fart" since I have one of those "remember when..." stories.  

I used to date a girl who went to school in Maryville TN, and I'd drive from Jacksonville AL to see her on the weekends.  I'd cut through Ringgold GA, a little bit of a longer drive than necessary because Georgia had a ridiculously low gasoline prices.  I remember when I paid 76 cents per gallon- and believe it or not but this was only 1998ish give or take a year.

Obviously I am older than you because I remember the first time I paid 50 cents per gallon, the gas pumps wouldn't go that high so they sold it by the half gallon.  Back even further I remember going with my dad to the Sinclair gas station and hearing him fuss because it had gone up to 32 center per gallon.

[Guest Nekhyludov]

17 minutes ago, Scotch&Stogie said:

Agree. As a native, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was a response to the American Heart Association or some other, equally as evil, entity. “You want a tax on cigars, fine 1.1 cents.”  I believe there was also a provision in there about future tax hikes that made it more difficult to increase the rates by removing it from cigarette and smokeless entirely, but it’s been too long. 

It might be juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a touch over the top to describe the American Heart Association as "evil." Feels like we're racing toward Godwin's Rule of Hitler Analogies here. 

[Scotch&Stogie]

23 minutes ago, Nekhyludov said:

It might be juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a touch over the top to describe the American Heart Association as "evil." Feels like we're racing toward Godwin's Rule of Hitler Analogies here. 

How about just their lobbying arm then? Like many charitable organizations is been heavily corrupted over the years and spends most of its time either pushing money around internally or lobbying for increasingly intrusive legislative action. They were a large part of state and municipal smoking bans, higher taxes on tobacco products, fatty foods, sugary drinks, etc. and continue to push for labeling laws that do not allow for any product differentiation. 

[Edward7]

I am so naïve. I thought it was the fact that the stores were brick and mortar and that's why cigars in shops in CA were so expensive. I guess you cannot compete with some of the big no tax online merchants out of FL. I don't get how shops even stay in business in CA, especially if they do not offer locker storage.

[alloy]

3 hours ago, Justin said:

$.011/stick!  God bless Texas!!

Wondered why the sticks here were cheaper. Yes, it's great to live in Texas!

[wineguy]

6 hours ago, MD Puffer said:

On the other end of the spectrum, I'm not at all surprised that there's no tax (other than sales tax) on cigars in Florida, but really blown away by the lack of tobacco tax on cigars in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC.  

I think it all relative to other taxes.  In PA no tax on cigars and relatively reasonable income tax but the highest gasoline  taxes in the US and all liquor distribution is controlled by the state and taxed very heavily.

[Duxnutz]

Compared to what the folks in the rest of the world pay (especially Oz), it seems rediculous to me that this is even worth bringing up for the USA. What is it now, $1k per kg in Australia? 

[wineguy]

3 minutes ago, Duxnutz said:

Compared to what the folks in the rest of the world pay (especially Oz), it seems rediculous to me that this is even worth bringing up for the USA. What is it now, $1k per kg in Australia? 

Very much agree,  I am always struck by the difference in pricing on 24:24.  It is  glaring....

[MrGlass]

58 minutes ago, Duxnutz said:

What is it now, $1k per kg in Australia? 

Slightly over that actually - $1,076.35 ?

[gweilgi]

4 hours ago, Scotch&Stogie said:

How about just their lobbying arm then? Like many charitable organizations is been heavily corrupted over the years and spends most of its time either pushing money around internally or lobbying for increasingly intrusive legislative action. They were a large part of state and municipal smoking bans, higher taxes on tobacco products, fatty foods, sugary drinks, etc. and continue to push for labeling laws that do not allow for any product differentiation. 

Not so much corrupted, IMHO, as the victim of their own logic.  Lobby groups identify the issue they are pushing, then the causes/culprits, then the remedies.  First steps are always easy because they are the really low-hanging fruit.  But every victory and every step of progress makes it harder to achieve improvements.  For example, going from no laws and "hey, I just killed a bottle of JD and I'm shafe to drive <hic>" to a basic limit reduces the carnage on the roads massively.  But every further reduction in the drink-driving limits will yield smaller results.  So the activists and lobbyists have to push every harder just to see some reduction in the alcohol-related road fatalities.  The same with tobacco, or heart disease or anything else.  

[Freddo]

19 minutes ago, MrGlass said:

Slightly over that actually - $1,076.35 ?

Don't forget +10% GST ?

So roughly a stick we pay more tax than cigar cost and it's going up every year... 

[gweilgi]

2 minutes ago, Freddo said:

Don't forget +10% GST ?

So roughly a stick we pay more tax than cigar cost and it's going up every year... 

Something is VERY wrong when we are asked to pay tax on our tax....

[prodigy]

I just dont see how things get taxed multiple times. From mining raw materials, making sheet metal, assembling a product, selling it to a wholesaler, selling it to a customer, and then every time its sold, its taxed. Think cars, how much tax money the government has collected on a car that's 20 years old and has been sold a dozen times.

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