Friday, July 20, 2007
Cigar Aficionados Want Tax Plan To Go Up In Smoke
cbs4.com - Cigar Aficionados Want Tax Plan To Go Up In Smoke: "Men, and women, who love a good cigar may go into stogie sticker shock if Congress has its way.
A measure making its way through the halls of Congress would not only raise the tax on cigarettes and cigars, it would raise the tax on some cigars through the roof.
Cigarettes, which account 95 percent of tobacco tax collections, are the main focus of the bill. Federal taxes on a pack would jump from 39-cents to $1.
As for cigars, currently the federal government levies a flat tax of 5-cents per cigar. If the proposed legislation passes, it would increase the tax up to $10 per cigar, depending on the price of the cigar. In some cases that would be an increase of up to 20 thousand percent.
Under measure being considered, a cigar would be taxed at 53-percent of its wholesale price. For example, if a cigar costs $5 now, under the new tax plan the price would increase by more than half - to just over $7.50. A cigar that costs $20 would be taxed $10 under the new plan.
The impact of cigar dealers, large and small, would be enormous.
'I have a thousand open boxes of cigars,' said Jorge Valdes of Sabor Havana Cigars in Doral. 'Put 20-thousand percent on top of each cigar and you tell me what that number is.'"
A measure making its way through the halls of Congress would not only raise the tax on cigarettes and cigars, it would raise the tax on some cigars through the roof.
Cigarettes, which account 95 percent of tobacco tax collections, are the main focus of the bill. Federal taxes on a pack would jump from 39-cents to $1.
As for cigars, currently the federal government levies a flat tax of 5-cents per cigar. If the proposed legislation passes, it would increase the tax up to $10 per cigar, depending on the price of the cigar. In some cases that would be an increase of up to 20 thousand percent.
Under measure being considered, a cigar would be taxed at 53-percent of its wholesale price. For example, if a cigar costs $5 now, under the new tax plan the price would increase by more than half - to just over $7.50. A cigar that costs $20 would be taxed $10 under the new plan.
The impact of cigar dealers, large and small, would be enormous.
'I have a thousand open boxes of cigars,' said Jorge Valdes of Sabor Havana Cigars in Doral. 'Put 20-thousand percent on top of each cigar and you tell me what that number is.'"
Labels: cigars, National Politics, News, tabacco
