Congressional Democrats have introduced a bill that would impose the first federal tax on vaping products, and increase other tobacco taxes for the first time in a decade.
Currently, about half of U.S. states have some kind of vaping product tax, but there is no federal tax.
The bill is supported by longtime Illinois vaping foes Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, and co-sponsored by a handful of the usual Senate vaping opponents. The Tobacco Tax Equity Act Of 2021 (S.1314) will close “loopholes that the industry has exploited to target our children” by doubling the cigarette tax and then increasing taxes on other tobacco products to bring them into “tax parity” with cigarettes, according to Durbin.
The sponsors don’t explain how equalizing taxes between deadly cigarettes and low-risk products like vapes and smokeless tobacco could possibly benefit public health.
Jim McDonald – Vaping360 – 2021-04-23.
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