On January 20, the state of Washington saw two bills proposed, House Bill 1416 and House Bill 1417, that would further hike the state’s higher-than-average tobacco taxes. We reported that the two bills would add an additional 33 cents of taxes per pack of cigarettes (currently based at $4.035 before any local sales taxes), and that “existing taxes on most vape juices, cigars, and other products would be raised.”
Writing for Halfwheel, Patrick Lagreid dug into the actual increases on several nicotinereu products. Washington has a tax rate of 95% of the taxable sales price, maintaining a cap on the maximum tax that can be charged. Lagreid said the cap on premium cigars would be raised from 65 cents to 72 cents.
“The bill also raises the tax on vapor products from 27 cents to 30 cents per milliliter of solution, while what are described as ‘accessible containers of solution’ will go from nine cents to 10 cents per milliliter, regardless of whether or not they contain nicotine,” he wrote. “Moist snuff would also see an increase, going from $2.526 to $2.776 per package of 1.2 ounces or less, though there is a provision that the tax must be at least that amount or 83.5% of the cigarette tax.”
The bills were proposed by Rep. Kristine Reeves and referred to the House Committee on Finance for initial rounds of debate. If passed as written, the increases would go into effect October 1.
