A new paper by a group of economics and health policy researchers finds that a law forcing all nicotine products to be taxed at the same rate would cause increased smoking and would damage rather than improve public health.
A law that would do exactly that was proposed earlier this year by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin—the Tobacco Tax Equity Act (S 1314), based on previously introduced Durbin tobacco tax parity bills. An identical House bill (HR 2786) was introduced at the same time by Illinois Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi. Both members of Congress are Democrats, and longtime opponents of vaping and tobacco harm reduction.
The Tobacco Tax Equity Act would double the federal tax on cigarettes, and apply the same tax rate to all other consumer nicotine products, with annual increases based on inflation. The tax on vaping products would be determined later by the Treasury Department. There is currently no federal tax on e-cigarettes or e-liquid.
Jim McDonald – Vaping360 – 2021-09-01.