E-cig tax: A 'new' levy or loophole closer?
Gov. Chris Sununu and the Democratic-led Legislature have fought bitterly over tax increases and tax cuts, but they seem to be in sync when it comes to one controversial hike.
That’s to broaden the state’s tobacco tax to include Electronic Cigarette Wholesale.Sununu, a two-term Republican, came into office campaigning to cut business taxes and to oppose any “new taxes.”
This proposal, however, tucked into the so-called trailer bill (HB 2) of the state budget, would make New Hampshire the first state in New England and only the 10th nationally to tax e-cigarettes.
The rate — 65 percent of the wholesale price — would be the second highest wholesale tax in the country, only lower than Minnesota at 90 percent.
Victor Vitale runs a vaping store in Hudson.“I’ve lived in New Hampshire 21 years. I can never remember us rushing to be the first to tax anybody,” Vitale told the House Ways and Means Committee last month.
“We will be taxing a product that helps people quit smoking. This is crazy,” he said.Sununu insisted he hasn’t broken his anti-tax pledge.
“It’s not a new tax, it’s a new product. This commonsense update merely closes the existing loophole for new nicotine-based products so that these products are treated the same,” Sununu said in a statement.
That’s not how Sununu’s GOP colleagues in the House of Representatives have seen it.The Democrat-controlled House initially endorsed a companion bill (HB 660) that would also impose the tax.Rep. John Hunt, R-Rindge, is the former chairman of the House Commerce Committee.
“The minority is not only opposed to the outrageous tax rate, but also the new definition of ‘tobacco products’ that the committee settled on that appears to also tax vaping equipment,” Hunt wrote last month.
Unlike the other bill, Sununu’s proposal in the budget would exempt vaping equipment from the tax.House Republicans are already campaigning against Democrats who voted for the tax, such as first-term Rep. Cole Riel of Goffstown.
“All the Republicans in Goffstown, Weare and Deering which I represent voted NO. Democrat Representative Cole Riel voted a BIG YES to tax your retail store and the tax payers more. 65.03% more,” Rep. John Burt, R-Goffstown, posted on social media after some Cumberland Farms owners mounted an e-campaign against the tax.
Buy Vaping Devices, Get Free Starter Kits. Just grab the Independence day Sales
u2022eney7485yyWEEEEDD
Vape WHOLESALE INQUIRY: https://www.ave40.com/wholesale-service.html