If you've been following our blog since the beginning, you know that on top of our regular type of content of pushing our own products, merch, and the like, we're also big on educating - particularly on taxes. At the end of the day, should a tax pass, that directly impacts you accessibility to your favorite BLVK products. One such tax event that was slated to happen was the Tobacco Tax Equity Act.
Under the proposed bill, the price of vapor products, particularly that of e-liquids would effectively double in price. For example, the bill would add $100.66 per 1.810mg of nicotine, or rather a $0.05 increase per milligram of e-liquid. Off a 60ml bottle of FRZNChee TFN, that would have been a $20.00 increase. On top of that, the tax would be on a national level, so depending on where you live, you could be subject to state and local taxes as well.
In a massive win to the vaping industry, the Tobacco Tax Equity Act was removed from the upcoming Senate Bill. Thanks constant pressure from advocacy groups, trade associations, individual brands such as ourselves, and adult smokers like you and I, the politicians in charge really wised up to the true impact the tax would have imposed.
HOW DID WE WIN?
Catherine Cortez Mastro, a democratic Senator out of Nevada spearheaded the removal of the tax bill along with Republican senators, several industry power-players ranging from trade associations, to consumer advocacy groups, all the way down to regular average joe's and jane's made their voices heard in strong opposition.
The common denominator of reasoning revolved around the tax burden falling onto lower-income and middle-income households. Such a tax burden directly contradicts President Biden's promise that Americans making under $400,000 wouldn't face tax increases.
In addition to skirting tax burden, the actual science of the bill and what it intends to do versus what it will actually do didn't make sense since the bill was originally introduced. Supporters of the bill such as quite nearly every public health agency and anti-vaping coalition groups argue that taxing e-cigarettes the same as traditional cigarettes would discourage minors from vaping. At the same time, however, since e-cigarettes would be egregiously more expensive than traditional cigarettes, the tax bill would encourage adult smokers to return to cigarettes instead, thus sparking yet another public health emergency.
Finally, politicians actually listen to reason! Again, thank you everyone that helped to save vaping and to keep the industry alive and accessible to all adult smokers nationwide.
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