A leaked document reveals that the European Commission has some dramatic plans for EU-wide taxes on vapes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches. It predicts that its proposed vape tax of €3.60 per bottle will wipe out 40% of the market. They say that like it's a good thing. It's time to fight again.
The idea that the Commission is driven by health concerns goes for a Burton when the report moves on to vapes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches. It wants to tax all these too, even though various member states do not. The case for leaving them alone is simple: they are much less dangerous than cigarettes and if you tax them, fewer people will use them to give up smoking.
On the other hand, governments lose tobacco duty revenue when people quit smoking and that is what really worries the European Commission. The leaked report openly states that one of its “specific objectives” is to “discourage tax induced substitution between different tobacco products and their substitutes”. This is an extraordinary admission. They know that price is one of the factors that leads people to switch from smoking to vaping and they think that this is a bad thing!
The report proposes a minimum tax on vape juice of €3.60 per 10ml bottle. To put this in context, a bottle of e-cigarette fluid in the UK typically costs £2 or £3 and can sometimes be as cheap as £1. The Commission is proposing that the cost of vaping should at least double. It expects a €3.60 tax to reduce sales by 40 per cent which would be the ruin of many independent vape shops but a boon to the cigarette business.
1 comment:
Oh well, I won't notice any difference as the Swedes already tax the hell out of e-liquid. I'm so glad that I had the foresight to stock up on 100mg/ml nicotine base when the EU started to get involved in vaping.
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