Cigarette Taxes (U.S.)

[sixteenth]

This getting goddamn ridiculous.

Illinois smokers eventually could have to pay $1 more for each pack of cigarettes under a plan lawmakers are already considering and Gov. Pat Quinn might back today.

Quinn?s proposal raises the taxes by 50 cents per pack this year and 50 more cents next year, American Lung Association of Illinois spokeswoman Kathy Drea said.

That would more than double the state?s cigarette tax, which is now 98 cents. On top of that, smokers are in line to pay 62 more cents in federal taxes for a pack of cigarettes starting April 1.

An Illinois Senate panel has already approved an increase in cigarette taxes by $1, and Quinn could get behind it today when he delivers his proposal for the state budget.

http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2009/03/18/news/illinois/doc49c04e1f0f371768635561.txt?sPos=3

I know most of you probably do not smoke. I know most of you will defend why you don't with an enthusiastic tongue. That's not what this thread is about.

This thread is for the addicted of us who are slaves to our tobacco fiending minds and who do not wish to pay OVER $5 DOLLARS A ****ING PACK IN THIS COUNTRY!!!!@!4 I honestly can't believe it has come this far. Less than a month ago, I was able to walk up to any convenience store/gas station in Illinois and purchase a pack of smokes for, and this was the most extreme, $4.25. Yesterday, I bought the same brand pack for $5.50. Either the tobacco industry is really doing that bad or this is some type of anti-smoking government initiative.

(1. the prices I listed only cover the state of Illinois, with the exception of the greater Chicagoland area (Cook County, Evanston, etc.), where prices are over $8.25 a pack.)

(2. If you reply "Just quit" or "It's only a dollar" or something similar, you really do not know what you're talking about. Don't post. When you buy several packs a week, a $1.00 hike in prices is very significant).

EDIT: I thought I might add that this hike to cigarette taxes is due, in part, to the backing from Governor Patrick Quinn... you know, that guy who replaced our previous ousted governor, Blagojevich. Partly why I made this in the Politics section.

 

[Sheepo]

Well, you've got two options:

1) Quit.
2) Or pay it.

Whether it's retarded or not, I hope you subscribe to the first option.

 

[Viperidae]

Not necessarily. If it's overtaxed, people will find a way around it. Look at Canada in the 90s.

 

[Escaep]

Good. They should make it $10.

 

[lefty]

I paid seven bucks for a pack the other day out of a convenience store. Shit wasn't convenient.

 

[Vegeta897]

Not necessarily. If it's overtaxed, people will find a way around it. Look at Canada in the 90s.

Canada was invented in 2001.

 

[sixteenth]

Well, you've got two options:

1) Quit.
2) Or pay it.

Whether it's retarded or not, I hope you subscribe to the first option.

Well then.

1) Look its a drug, we're addicted. Get over it. "We'll come into your house to get the ****ing cigarettes, okay?!"

2) Inevitably you're right; this is the only option.

 

[Lucid]

I fully endorse higher taxes for cigarettes, it'll encourage you to quit.
Horrible habit to break but it is possible.

My mother quit after smoking for 50+ years, so don't ****ing tell me you can't quit.

 

[Krynn72]

Government good health choices? Yeah, **** that!

Now they just need to tax fast food more.

 

[sixteenth]

My mother quit after smoking for 50+ years, so don't ****ing tell me you can't quit.

How long did it take her? How many times did she try?

I am definitely not saying it is impossible to quit. What evidence would I base that on, there have been millions of success stories saying in can be done.

That fact that in lies with quitting is that: it is different for everyone. Some can go cold-turkey and never return, while others quit several times only to relapse again, and again; even with the patches and/or gum. But most of us are in the category of the second example. We try, but to no avail. Thus, we bitch about cigarette prices.

Personally, I've quit 4-6 times. With days to months spread between the relapses. It really just depends on who you are.

 

[Krynn72]

Well then you should probably bitch to people that care, because nobody is going to side with you except for the smokers who are already bitching about it. The weak suffer what they must.

 

[sixteenth]

Well then you should probably bitch to people that care, because nobody is going to side with you except for the smokers who are already bitching about it. The weak suffer what they must.

Good. That's all I wanted. I figured at least some people on the board smoked and could share. That was the point of the thread.

 

[Krynn72]

Oh so its just a bitchfest thread? Perhaps you should have posted the thread in the bitchfest section rather than politics.

 

[Escaep]

My grandma forced my grandpa to quit. She filled a jar with pickle juice then put used cigarettes in it and made my grandpa smell it everytime he smoked.


Worked like a charm.

 

[sixteenth]

Oh so its just a bitchfest thread? Perhaps you should have posted the thread in the bitchfest section rather than politics.

Ok. I guess now I'll note that I'm not allowed, unless I want to receive ridicule for the basis of the post, to post topics that could be further elaborated on by people who are interested in the subject.

Thanks.

 

[PvtRyan]

Well, it's a nice cash cow. Whatever tax the smokers pay, I have to pay less.

I don't want smokers to quit, they're a valuable asset to the economy and my wallet. And the best thing: it's not exploitation of them, it's all voluntary! Sort of, any way.

 

[mchammer75040]

Good, ****in tax that shit. And while you're at it make pot legal and tax that too(also so I can make a killin sellin it to kids). Sweet
Anyways smokin is dumb dumb dumb
I can understand that its hard to quit, but that shit is just nasty.

 

[Warped]

they should just tax released rapists and pedophilers more and more, not people who actually mean to have a good standard of living. convicted fellons should be paying more.

 

[Sheepo]

It seems like OP thinks it's so hard to quit that it's not even worth bothering to try.

 

[Ennui]

It seems like OP thinks it's so hard to quit that it's not even worth bothering to try.

You should stop posting in this thread until you either understand cigarette addiction or can handle yourself maturely enough to pretend that you do.

NC just more than doubled the cigarette tax here... a few weeks ago I was spending about $4 for a pack of camels and now I spend $5. As if I wasn't poor enough already. It's kind of pathetic how the general public and government has no trouble tightening the vise-grip on smokers' collective nuts when smoking is weighted towards the low-income end. Raising the tax will help the state out in this horrible economy! Everyone jumps on board. If there was a tax increase like this targeting any other group of people in this economy, people would raise hell.

 

[Sheepo]

I'm not saying it's not hard to quit, I'm not even saying the tax is a good thing. I don't think I've said anything unreasonable or untrue at all.

 

[Javert]

I approve of all "sin taxes", and that includes cigarettes, hookah, alcohol, marijuana, and gambling.

 

[staticprimer]

I say tax them more. Smokers will get no sympathy from me.

 

[lefty]

I approve of all "sin taxes", and that includes cigarettes, hookah, alcohol, marijuana, and gambling.

Why? Because they're "sins"?

 

[mchammer75040]

Yes, why not? We should also put a tax on sodomy if you ask me. 1 dollar entry fee right here boys getitwhileitshot HEYYOOO.

 

[Absinthe]

Raise cigarette prices? Fine. I can take it. Fuck you. I blow my cash on, like, a billion pounds of weed a week, so I can foot the bill on this shit. I fucking tip Haji when I get my smokes from the gas station. This ain't no thang.

I am curious though if this is a purely financial move or the product of angry, do-good, shitbird health activists who would like to see smokers rounded up and gassed (BECAUSE IRONY RITE).

 

[Krynn72]

Cigarettes are made out of gases?

 

[Robert-]

am curious though if this is a purely financial move or the product of angry, do-good, shitbird health activists who would like to see smokers rounded up and gassed (BECAUSE IRONY RITE).

Obviously it's a finacial move. If they wanted to get smokers to quit, they would raise the prices, they would invest in getting cigarettes taken off the shelves.

 

[NeptuneUK]

Raise cigarette prices? Fine. I can take it. Fuck you. I blow my cash on, like, a billion pounds of weed a week, so I can foot the bill on this shit. I fucking tip Haji when I get my smokes from the gas station. This ain't no thang.


I am curious though if this is a purely financial move or the product of angry, do-good, shitbird health activists who would like to see smokers rounded up and gassed (BECAUSE IRONY RITE).

*warning* going off on tangent alert


The irony is in the amount of tax every government in the world makes from selling tobacco.
Tobacco is a plant. You could grow it and sell it by the sackful for a few quid if you treated it as any other plant.

"Duty on cigarettes - 22% of the retail price + 9.68 pence per cigarette - a total of ?2.93 for a packet of 20 cigarettes at an average retail price of ?4.25 per pack which means that the duty is 69% of the price."

Slightly outdated, and for the UK but relevant nontheless.

Do a little guesstimation, say 20% of adults smoke in the UK. That's a lot of people. Pretend that the average smoker only bought 3 packets a week.... For years.
Put 2 and 2 together. You are talking a seriously large amount of cash. Straight to the government. The government doesn't want everyone to stop smoking. If tobacco was immediately banned, the amount of money the government would lose would be insane. In fact, the government wanting to raise the tax on tobaccco is a sign that the number of smokers is dwindling.

Despite the cost to the NHS from smoking related illnesses, if everyone stopped smoking effective immediately there would be a big defecit in government funds. All this lost tax has to be regained somewhere, the change has to be gradual soley because more tax will have to be gained elsewhere. Everyone moans in the UK about all the bullshit taxes on everything, and the stupid amount we pay. 'Greedy bastard government' etc
I'd rather have a greedy bastard government than a bankrupt one.

 

[Krynn72]

So, basically you're saying that HobbesHax is un-American and bitching about having to do his part to help the economy and help alleviate our national debt?

What a dick.

 

[kepler]

Hobbes: You are getting caught in a transition. Instead of tobacco being made illegal, it has become a politically safe place to raise taxes. It will only get worse. Obviously they will become illegal eventually, You can barely smoke anyplace indoors. My personal opinion is that tobacco is great, but cigarettes have been engineered to be especially addictive, and for THAT reason, they should just be outlawed as they currently exist. The FDA should have some actual regulations on how they are manufactured, and should have all along.

 

[Absinthe]

Cigarettes are made out of gases?

Because cigarettes are filled with poison that, like goes into the air, and so second-hand smoke is like a mini-Holocaust...

:|

Fuck you.

 

[NeptuneUK]

Because cigarettes are filled with poison that, like goes into the air, and so second-hand smoke is like a mini-Holocaust...

:|

Fuck you.

I heartily lolled. This thread makes me want to roll up Nazi Germany RIGHT NOW!!


Heres the UK Tax Revenue from Tobacco Products
2007-08 (Forecast) ?8.1 billion
2008-09 (Forecast) ?8.2 billion
2009-10 (Forecast) ?8.2 billion



Estimated cost to NHS from smoking related illness seems to be anything between 0.6 - 2 billion


/thread.

 

[jet_porkins]

Not necessarily. If it's overtaxed, people will find a way around it. Look at Canada in the 90s.

I'm supposed to just know an obscure reference to a foreign country's citizens finding ways around taxation off the back of my hand?

 

[theotherguy]

Anyone who believes the government taxes cigarettes as an incentive for people to quit buying them is a bit off.

Firstly, the government imposes duties on goods that have highly inelastic demands. What this means is, the government taxes goods that people will buy anyway, even with large increases in price.

The government taxes cigarettes because it provides a stable, guaranteed source of income. They know that if they increase the price of cigarettes artificially, the demand for cigarettes will almost go unaltered. Addicts will continue to buy cigarettes, and brunt the price. If the government taxed something with more elastic demand, like, say, video-games or ice-cream or something else that people would avoid buying if the price was much higher, then they would lower demand for the product, and end up getting very little money.

The government does something similar with the gasoline tax, since gasoline has a highly inelastic demand.

Governments in the past used to levy massive taxes on things like bread, sugar, and salt, since they were almost universally bought, and people bought them anyway, in spite of the price. In more recent years, taxes on "necessities" have become taboo, because they decrease the quality of life of the people who cannot buy them with the added tax. The government now only generally taxes "luxuries".

 

[Raziaar]

Government needs money. Cigarettes are harmful as ****ing shit. Kills our workers and other shit. I have no problem with them being taxed.

 

[NeptuneUK]

Government needs money. Cigarettes are harmful as ****ing shit. Kills our workers and other shit. I have no problem with them being taxed.

Cigarettes don't literally go out and kill people. They aren't going around killing all your workers indescriminately. Cigarettes cause harm to whoever smokes them.
Smoking increases the chance of cancer etc we all know this.
Cigarettes are taxed heavily, the issue is not about cigarettes being taxed, it's the way that in Illinois they want to increase the tax even further for no other reason than extra monetary gain. Specifically taking advantage over the addictive nature of nicotine. Overall smoking trends will hardly be affected, the only outcome is more money to the government and less for the working class.

 

[JFry]

Cigarettes don't literally go out and kill people. They aren't going around killing all your workers indescriminately. Cigarettes cause harm to whoever smokes them.
Smoking increases the chance of cancer etc we all know this.
Cigarettes are taxed heavily, the issue is not about cigarettes being taxed, it's the way that in Illinois they want to increase the tax even further for no other reason than extra monetary gain. Specifically taking advantage over the addictive nature of nicotine. Overall smoking trends will hardly be affected, the only outcome is more money to the government and less for the working class.

I have to agree with this. I think it's fine that they are taxed, but the huge increase in taxes over the past 10 years or so is just ridiculous and unjustified. I'm kinda shocked at the number of people in this thread that think this is a good thing just because cigarettes are bad. This country is supposed to be about freedom and all that good stuff. I don't need anyone telling me what to put in my body and I certainly don't think it justifies placing these outrageous taxes on it just because someone wants to purchase a good they might not agree with. I'm a non-smoker for the record.

 

[Warped]

the amount of people that die from nuclear tests far outweigh that of cigarette smoke, just imagine how much radioactive crap is out there, including toxic satellite debris like those that crashed together. imagine if many nuclear powered satellites crashed into each other and slowly released toxic material into the air and then landing into the food supply and waterways.

in fact we coat our bullets now with nuclear material so that the enemy not only gets hurt badly but those who take the bullet out

 

[kineaesth]

I'm supposed to just know an obscure reference to a foreign country's citizens finding ways around taxation off the back of my hand?

HE SAID FUCKING LOOK AT IT

ENOUGH OF YOUR FUCKING BACK-CHAT

This is kinda shitty. Raised taxes on alcomahol would cause a giant fuss, yet it just happens that alcohol is the more sanctioned drug.