Tobacco sales tax
Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposal to raise taxes on tobacco products is causing a lot of huffing and puffing among local sellers. O’Malley’s proposed $35.9 billion budget for fiscal 2013 would raise the 15 percent excise tax on cigars, smokeless tobacco and other no cigarette tobacco items to 70 percent. The proposed tax increase would raise the price of a $1.49 cigar to about $2.20. Budget analysts project the increase will bring the state an extra $20 million next year, according to published reports. The governor’s proposal isn’t sitting well with local retailers. New taxes on tobacco products will attract more people to neighboring countries for their supplies, said Bob Burgess, owner of JBK Associates in Mount Airy. “Many of my customers go next door (in Virginia and West Virginia), and I tell them I do … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes
Cigarette rules
The national government should make efforts to ensure compliance with existing rules and regulations before considering new measures of tax, as well as indexation of excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol, a deputy from La Union said. Although the Department of Finance would the proposed hike in fees for alcohol and tobacco to be approved by the middle of next year, La Union Representative Victor Ortega said the government had not properly implemented regulations on cigarettes. “What’s the point of making new laws, if we can not strictly enforce existing rules and regulations as the ban on cigarette sales to minors,” Ortega said. But the finance department explained that there is a need to raise tobacco and alcohol taxes, so that the industry is not controlled by a single company and to improve … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes
Cebu whistle-blower sues tycoon on taxes
A Cebuano whistle-blower has charged two firms owned by tycoon Lucio Tan of allegedly using dummy companies to evade paying taxes worth billions of pesos. Danilo Pacaña, 56, filed tax evasion charges against Fortune Tobacco Corp.-Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (FTC-PMFTC) and Asia Brewery Inc. (ABI) at the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Dec. 6. He asked BIR Commissioner Kim Henares to conduct an “honest-to-goodness investigation” of these firms to collect the correct amount of taxes from them. Pacaña said he believed that the case was the “mother of tax evasion cases in the country’s history.” The tax evasion had allegedly gone on for at least 20 years, he said, and had cost the government billions of pesos. The Inquirer contacted officials of Tan’s companies but they declined to comment. Jethro Sabariaga, BIR chief … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes
Initiative petition on taxing tobacco on ballot
Secretary of State Robin Carnahan announced that two initiative petitions have met state standards for circulation. One of the petitions relates to taxation on cigarettes and other tobacco products, and the other petition relates to a municipal police force. The ballot title for the petition relating to taxation on cigarettes and other tobacco products reads: Shall Missouri law be amended to: • create the Health and Education Trust Fund with proceeds of a tax of $0.0365 per cigarette and 25% of the manufacturer’s invoice price for roll-your-own tobacco and 15% for other tobacco products; • use Fund proceeds to reduce and prevent tobacco use and for elementary, secondary, college, and university public school funding; and • increase the amount that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes
Tobacco support price: a sign of hope or a disappointment?
Tobacco growers breathed a sigh of relief as they returned to their crops after the much-awaited announcement of tobacco support price. Sentiments of hesitation and uncertainty about the returns raced amongst growers, which hampered the finalising of tobacco contracts between farmers and the companies. The announcement is expected every year towards the end of October. However, CY11 saw a delay of over a month as the authorities were striving hard to reach a price with the consensus of all stakeholders – the farmers, tobacco exporting and manufacturing companies, and the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB). brecorder.com The minimum support price of Rs117/kg Virginia tobacco which is the most commonly produced type of tobacco in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, saw an increase of about 13 percent compared to last year. It is meant to provide relief primarily to the farmers … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes, Tobacco news
Cigarette tax
Warren Erdman, ending his term as president of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, turns his attention to increasing the cigarette tax by 73 cents per pack, still far below the national average. Erdman joins Rep. Mary Still, who for years has promoted a cigarette tax increase, so far without success. I’ve been a skeptic of this particular tax because for many it is an attempt to punish use of a particular product on behavioral grounds, but many others, like Erdman and Still, see public revenue gain as the main benefit — an argument bolstered politically by the fact all other states are ahead of us. For Missouri to remain lowest in the nation at 17 cents a pack seems vaguely out of step, if not stupid. Erdman wants to earmark the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes
Campaigners cheers tax hike on tobacco
The decision of the State Government to raise value added tax on cigarettes, bidis and every other form of tobacco products has got the thumbs up from the anti-tobacco campaigners and the medical fraternity. The move would go a long way in not only saving a large number of lives but also effect reduction in Government spending on treating tobacco-related diseases, they have asserted. The State Government has increased VAT on cigarettes and smokeless forms of tobacco to 25 per cent from 13.5 per cent and also has gone ahead to impose a 10 per cent tax on bidis and the raw materials that go into its making from an absolute nil. The State has now joined the ranks of counterparts like Kerala, Gujarat, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes
Seneca cigarette dealer files for bankruptcy
One of the biggest movers of Native American-made cigarettes has filed for federal bankruptcy protection, a month after a court said the wholesaler is responsible for potentially tens of millions of dollars in federal tobacco assessments. The Chapter 11 reorganization filing by Arthur Montour, owner of Native Wholesale Supply on the Seneca Indian Nation’s Cattaraugus Reservation, lists more than $50 million in liabilities by the businessman who has become wealthy by moving billions of cigarettes made on an Ontario reservation to other tribes across the United States. The company and its Ontario cigarette partners, the subjects of a 2009 investigation by The Buffalo News, also listed as creditors a half-dozen states that have brought various lawsuits against Native Wholesale Supply over its tobacco-distribution practices. But Montour’s biggest creditor — at $43 million — … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes
Oregon’s high court says Philip Morris has to pay up
The Oregon Supreme Court said Friday that Philip Morris USA must pay an additional $99 million, on top of the millions it has already paid after a 1999 jury penalized the cigarette maker for causing the death of a Portland smoker. The ruling could represent the end to a 14-year fight over damages in the death of retired Portland school custodian Jesse D. Williams. He smoked as many as three packs of Marlboros a day and died of lung cancer in 1997 at age 67. In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court shot down Philip Morris’ appeal that the award of $79.5 million in punitive damages was unjust. The cigarette maker paid Jesse Williams’ widow, Mayola, economic and noneconomic damages — plus 40 percent of that punitive award, and 9 percent interest, … Read entire article »
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Native cigarettes are now a problem for Western provinces
Chief Frank Brown of the Canupawakpa Dakota Nation doesn’t smoke, but he swears by the Mohawk-manufactured cigarettes on sale at the Dakota Chundee Smoke Shack near Pipestone, Man. “We did our research and the provincial [name brand] cigarettes have a lot of chemicals in them,” he says. “We think our smokes don’t have the cancer that the province’s cigarettes do.” Whatever the supposed health claims put forth by Brown, the Manitoba government isn’t listening. In mid-November, officials seized 90,000 contraband cigarettes, which were not authorized for sale in the province. The next day, Dakota Chundee, which doesn’t sit on reserve land, was open again, crowded with non-Aboriginal buyers. The raid, and subsequent reopening of the smoke shack, is the latest in a growing frontier war between First Nations and western provincial governments. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes, Tobacco laws, Tobacco news
Roll-your-own smoke shops under fire
There is no place in the U.S. more expensive to smoke than New York City, where the taxes alone will set you back $5.85 per pack. Yet, addicts who visit Island Smokes, a “roll-your-own” cigarette shop in Chinatown, can walk out with an entire 10-pack carton for under $40, thanks to a yawning tax loophole that officials in several states are now trying to close. The store is one of a growing number around the country that have come under fire over their use of high-speed cigarette rolling machines that function as miniature factories, and can package loose tobacco and rolling papers into neatly formed cigarettes, sometimes in just a few minutes. The secret to Island’s low prices is simple: Even though patrons leave carrying cartons that look very much like the Marlboros … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes, Tobacco news
Cigarettes and Fire Danger: How You can Prevent Tragedy
You see them discarded along highways and roads,everyone seems to throw them out.That little cigarette butt could turn into someone’s worst nightmare.JJ. Jones, Chief of Sherman Fire,”Grass is extremely dry, and it really doesn’t take much. You know a discarded match, a discarded cigarette could certainly ignite the grass and brush and result in a very tragic situation. “With the drought index at 792 out of 800 the fire conditions are just right to fuel fires. A situation that people can prevent, just by thinking about where they can safely put out their cigarette. J. J. Jones, Chief of Sherman Fire,”One of the leading causes is that discarded smoking material, so we believe that all those cases are preventable and with just a little forethought … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cigarette taxes
Tobacco facts
- Are state employees not fussing up to tobacco use? February 3, 2012
- Tobacco Lawsuit Helps Oregon February 2, 2012
- Can tobacco be used to treat cancer? February 1, 2012
- Tobacco sales tax January 31, 2012
- Tobacco giant January 30, 2012
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