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The Hypocrisy of Raising Cigarette Excise Taxes
Cigarettes are one of the most heavily taxed consumer products in the United States, and excise taxes on cigarettes are much higher than excise taxes on other age-restricted products. In most states, there is a wide gap between the level of excise taxes paid on beer and wine compared to the level of excise taxes on cigarettes.
Hypocrisy
In Wyoming, you can buy 533 six-packs of beer, and still pay less excise tax than you would pay on only one carton of cigarettes. In New York, you can buy 398 bottles of wine – more than 33 cases – and pay less excise tax than for one carton of cigarettes. How many six-packs of beer or bottles of wine would you have to purchase in your state to generate the same state excise tax revenue as one carton of cigarettes?
The Bottom Line
Smokers make up about 20.5 percent of the U.S. adult population, and they are already paying more than their fair share of the tax burden. The government makes more money off cigarettes per minute than the average family makes in a year. Federal taxes on cigarettes have increased 62.5 percent since 2000. Yet proposals to further increase cigarette taxes are made each year – usually to fund new or expanded government programs unrelated to tobacco control. Raising cigarette taxes perpetuates the hypocrisy of "politically correct" tax profiling of adult smokers.
Know the Facts
The estimated weighted average state excise tax on cigarettes as of July 2007 was 78.5 cents per pack, and the federal government levies an additional 39 cents per pack. Federal, state and municipal excise taxes on cigarettes for the fiscal year ending June 2006 amounted to nearly $22 billion. This is not a fair way to tax cigarettes or the adults who smoke them. It's time to end the hypocrisy of tobacco excise taxes and spread the tax burden more fairly.
Learn more, and speak out!
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