You can imagine how well that was received.
Posted on 01/10/2013 2:41:18 PM PST by GlockThe Vote
New York has the highest cigarette tax rate of any state, and nearly two-thirds of the state's cigarette market is illegal, announced the think tank Tax Foundation on Thursday.
The Tax Foundation said that 60.9% of cigarettes sold in New York State are smuggled in from other states.
This makes New York the biggest importer of black market cigarettes, along with the state's highest tax rate of $4.35 per pack. That's compared to Missouri, the state with the lowest rate, of 17 cents per pack.
In New York City the tax rate is even higher, adding another $1.50 per pack to the state rate. It's not uncommon for smokers to pay $12 for a pack.
The report said that tobacco smuggling and the tax rate have risen practically in tandem since 2006. The New York State tax on cigarettes has risen 190% since that time, as the rate of smuggling increased 170%.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
A German story here from about a decade ago. The German tax folks and the anti-smoking crowd came to together for a two-phase approach. It was a fair-sized jump on the current tax at the time on smokes.
Well...roughly nine months go into this first step of the new tax, and there’s an emergency meeting of the German tax office. There’s roughly a quarter-a-billion dollars missing from cigarette taxes for that period. The anti-smoking folks were all happy, thus this showing that people quit smoking, but the tax folks were furious because they were short on the revenue bucket.
Then, the customs guys at the table stood up....strange thing...they announced. They had seen a drastic change in illegal cigarette cartons being smuggled into Germany. Teenagers were bringing in twenty cartons here and there. People had enough truckloads that they attempted to smuggle in....with no taxes on the smokes. They were busting people left and right.
So the tax folks got suddenly worried. The public had said enough, and simply found other sources for their smokes. They stopped phase two of the tax hike and hoped that people would stop this smuggling practice. Well...they never have. Smuggling cigarettes into Germany is as popular as ever.
The lesson here....is that you can only tax up to one single point and then the public will not accept it anymore. Once you screw up the tax game....your whole monopoly on taxes drys up.
Nope, self-confessing smokers have decreased by 60%.
When the tax on loose cigarette tobacco went up by 2300% in 09, most of the people I know switched from roll your own cigarette tobacco to rolling their own with pipe tobacco that wasn’t covered by the tax.
I hope the people who thought it was OK to hike taxes by 2300% on a product they didn’t use are happy when the same prohibitive tax is imposed on a product they do use.
Here in Tennessee, there is a law that says you can’t cross the border into another state like KY with much lower taxes, and buy a quantity to bring back, even for your own use. At one time they had spies at borderline stores taking down license plates and radioing it back to LE in TN.
Good. I’m glad to hear it and hope it continues.
Regards,
There were wars fought and massive demonstrations of civil disobedience over the right to peaceably travel from place to place in this country.
Sounds like it may be time for a re-peat.
You can imagine how well that was received.
Don’t give Bloomberg any ideas. He would do it.
They were warned - but they didn’t listen..
Now Como and Bloomberg want to add even more restrictions and costs to legal firearms ownership!!!
Have at it idiots!!
Around twenty or so years ago the Indiana a uthorities put a stop to Ohio liquor agents doing the very same thing.
And Ohio finally ended its state monopoly on liquor sales.
People were driving to Indiana and Kentucky for quantity liquor purchases because the Ohio prices were so high.
And every time the tyrants tax and outlaw what have been accepted human activities ,they engender more smuggling,disregard,and disdain for all laws.
Funny thing is that the cigarette smuggling numbers in Michigan are artificially lower due to smuggling out of the state into Canada which is far more restrictive.
All those cigarette taxes are goin' for smoking cessation programs riiiiight???
It's for the children doncha' know.
Had to laugh at this because I could see them trying to pull it off - after all, much of those tobacco taxes go to pay for all those obnoxious quit smoking ad campaigns!
How do these people get away with this?
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elkfersupper: Nope, self-confessing smokers have decreased by 60%.
You''re both wrong - predicted tax revenues have decreased by 60%.
The anti-smokers have never and will never learn - they predict a 10% decrease in smoking for every (?)% of tax increase - they are always wrong by a factor of about 75%. Additionally, the estimated increase in tax revenue never meets expectation.
They are repeatedly told this each and every time they propose tax increases and each and every time they ignore the facts placed in front of them.
Don’t go giving them anymore ideas.
And increase in crime; The blackmarket sets up turf wars and more gang (and terrorists, there have been terrorists caught selling blackmarket cigs to finance their activities)crime. They won’t ingage in this activity unless the taxes on something makes it more feasible for consumers to risk buying on the blackmarket.
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