Tobacco companies exploit loophole on increased tobacco tax.

[dixiegrrrrl]

"The total cost of federal cigarette taxes went up 62 cents per pack to $1.
But taxes on roll-your-own tobacco went up even higher, from $1.10 to $24.78 per pound.
That’s a 2,250% increase.

When this tax increase took effect earlier this year, many roll-your-own smokers were worried that it would put their brand of choice out of business and that what would be left for roll-your-own tobacco would be too expensive to afford. But that didn’t happen. Instead, manufacturers of roll-you-own tobacco sought out and exploited a loophole in the bill. They simply relabeled their roll-your-own tobacco brands as “pipe tobacco,” which is taxed at about a tenth of the new roll-your-own rate, and kept right on selling the exact same product to their customers, now with a picture of a pipe on the label.

However........
Congress took notice and is looking to increase the pipe tobacco tax by 775% so that it is taxed at the same rate as roll-your-own tobacco."

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1522-Congress-Eyes-775-Increase-on-Pipe-Tobacco-Tax?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCongressCongressGossipBlog+(Open+Congress+Blog)

[virgogal]

1. I can't wait for them to tax candy,alcohol, and soda this way. The country

country could use the money and none of these products are necessary.

[tkmorris]

3. That's your criterion for punitive taxation? Things that aren't necessary?

Be careful what you wish for.

[virgogal]

5. It isn't punitive taxation,it's taxation on non-necessities. I have no

problem with that at all.

[tkmorris]

11. Your home is full of unnecessary things

None of them get taxed in this fashion.

[virgogal]

16. Yes my home is full of unnecessary things (I'm one of them),but I

don't think cigarettes and tobacco should be taxed at an extraordinarily high rate when other things just get the regular sales tax,if that,added to the cost.

The OP was on cig and tobacco taxes and I was responding to that.

[amborin]

12. coffee, tea, sugar.....?

where do you draw the line?

[virgogal]

17. The politicians draw the line. We don't have much say in the matter.

My only point is the ridiculous taxing of tobacco products when other things that have no food or health value could also be taxed.

[jmowreader]

2. They didn't suspect this?

Yes, there is a Prince Albert, he does come in a can, and he used to be labeled "Crimp Cut Long Burning Pipe and Cigarette Tobacco." So yeah, they should have known this was going to happen.

[DJ13]

4. Yay, lets fleece the poor even more!

[TheMadMonk]

9. Indeed. It is fairly well known that the poor budget the beer and cigs first...

...and then try to figure out how to live on the rest. This is particularly true of the unemployed.

And "They should just...." just doesn't cut it. Right or wrong, alcohol is a coping mechanism of the poor. It numbs the brain and allows a person to get through one more day. And cigarettes are so adictive that even as users know they are litterally killing themselves they reach for another smoke and light up.

For alcoholism that is not yet outright adiction there is a solution, but it's not the obvious simplistic one of: just stop drinking. Australian Aboriginals are notorious for their alcoholism. All sorts of fixes have been tried: dry communites; moving communities away from the alcohol; bans on sale of alcohol to Aboriginals; closing outlets on cheque day; voucher systems. They pretty much all relied on forcing/coercing aboriginals to not drink and none of them work. Bootleggers certainly do well though.

Strangely enough it was a capatilistic, money saving plan that has helped a number or Aboriginal communities of central and northern Australia deal with their alcohol problem. The Ghan Railway runs from Adelaide in the South to Darwin in the North through some of the nastiest, remostest, inhospitable land in the country. The cost of stationing white maintenance crews along its length would have been enormous with allowances for travel, remoteness & isolation and hostility of the land & climate. Instead they offered maintenance contracts to the various Aboriginal communities along the line at much lower rates than they would have had to offer whites.

And you know what? All those shiftless "darkies" who you couldn't get to work in an iron lung said "Thankyou very much.", took the money, stopped collecting welfare, did the job as well as any white crew if not better, and reduced their drinking to the old Ocker standard of a few beers after work.

And yet are these communities the ones our Govt. uses to determine their policy towards Aboriginals? Not a hope. It's the fenced compounds on the outskirts of the few large white towns that are the baseline. Towns where blacks are not welcome in public bars, where they are served alcohol through a dutch door around the back of the pubs. Towns where the only work a blackfella can get is playing "Jackie Jackie" to tourists. And with these Aboriginal communities as their baseline they justify more intervention, more restrictions, throwing more money at the "problem". Every single stupid thing they can think of EXCEPT offering the Aboriginals something productive to do with their lives.

[1]

13. that schip tax was bullshit from the get go. if we want this for our children, why don't we all pay?

and not just smokers?

hummm???

[KT2000]

6. the tax increase on roll your own

is really horrible. People with little money, who smoke, used to get by with the loose tobacco. It is unfortuante that not everyone is perfect but those who are less so are being severely penalized. Who am I to tell the woman who walks around town talking to herself that she is a bad girl and can no longer enjoy a smoke.

[Alcibiades]

7. Snuff

Dirt cheap, no lung cancer.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Since I don't use tobacco, I don't know if snuff prices have gone up.

I am assuming if they have not, the tax people will see snuff as the next target.

and by the way, mouth and throat cancer is a problem with snuff use.
That being said, snuff , or "chaw" is big down here in the south, as you probably know.

[Alcibiades]

14. You can use it nasally

You're right that snuff can cause mouth and throat cancer among habitual oral users, but there's little risk from snorting it. No particulate matter in the lungs, no swallowing tobacco-laden spit, just nasty brown snot. It's about $3.00 an ounce, and an ounce lasts a long time.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. OH my,,,of course,,,snuff!

You know, for some reason, I was not aware that sniffing snuff was still a practice.
Guess all I see is the "chaw".

thanks for the update.

[Alcibiades]

20. Folks use this product both ways

That's why most American snuffs add sugar. Still, because of the cost, the bans on smoking, etc., many are switching. You can do it in places where you cannot smoke of chew, which is a plus. And, for some reason, there really don't seem to be the health risks that are associated with chewing tobacco, cigars and cigarettes.

[The Straight Story]

10. Obama was wrong on this tax (nt)

[TheKentuckian]

18. Hey hush yer mouth...that thar is supposed to be smoker's inside baseball

Busy bodies need to chill out and leave people counting pennies the hell alone.

[SOS]

19. 775% tax increase on pipe tobacco?

As a pipe smoker, I will simply order my 1792 Dark Kendall Flake from England and not pay any f#cking tax.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. This is a regressive tax that affects the middle class. Yes, I make my own and yes,

I use "pipe' tobacco