Tobacco Tax Increase Proposed in Virginia

A bill seeking a significant overhaul of taxes in the Commonwealth of Virginia is calling for an increase in the state’s tobacco tax on cigars and other tobacco products from 10 to 23 percent of the wholesale price.

S.B. 390 addresses numerous facets of the state’s taxation system, from income and corporate tax to the estate tax and taxes on food and other consumables. In the case of tobacco, the tax on cigarettes would be more than doubled, from $0.30 to $7.00 per pack. Roll your own tobacco, cigars and other tobacco products except for moist snuff and loose leaf tobacco would also face the increase on the wholesale rate. Loose leaf tobacco would increase from $0.21 to $0.49 for each loose leaf tobacco single unit, while moist snuff would remain at the rate of $0.18 per ounce.

For a premium cigar with an MSRP of $9.50, the cost at the register would increase from $10.45 to $11.69, by halfwheel estimates.

Following its introduction to the senate on Jan. 9 by Sen. David W. Marsden, D-Burke, it was referred to the chamber’s finance committee.

Correction (Jan. 18, 2018) — an earlier version of this article misidentified the current cigarette tax in Virginia; it is $0.30 per pack, not $3.00 per pack. It has been corrected, and we sincerely regret the error.