Suzanimal
06-27-2015, 01:31 PM
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Those employees also might be soon out of their jobs due to a new tax being contemplated by the DC city council. The tax could treat e-cigarettes like tobacco-burning cigarettes, despite the fact that vaping products contain no actual tobacco — just a nicotine-infused “juice” that is turned into water vapor instead of smoke.
While a debate still burns in the public health community about just how much e-cigarettes help smokers kick the habit, the DC city council is poised to end the argument early. On June 30, the council is set to vote on a budget amendment that would slap a 70 percent excise tax on e-cigarettes and related vaping products, a move that will likely drive District Vape and several other small independent stores in the city out of business.
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DC Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed the amendment to try to fill revenue holes in the city’s 2016 budget. The tax would raise $400,000, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute has estimated. But Robinson insists that the city will get none of that revenue from stores like his because they will just have to close their doors.
The tax change, the Vapor Product Amendment Act, would classify e-cigarettes and associated vaporized nicotine delivery devices as “other tobacco products” and subject them to the same 70 percent wholesale tax used for normal cigarettes.
The policy would effectively cut off supplies for independent vaping shops. A vendor of a $100 e-cigarette device, for example, would have to pay an extra $70 to the city in order to sell to District Vape.
“No vendor would want to sell me anything” if the council approves the tax change, Robinson told The Daily Caller. Similar stores in the city like DC Vape Joint already often sometimes have to partner up with him to buy supplies in amounts large enough to meet the minimum quantity for vendor orders that one store could not afford alone, he said.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/26/dc-considers-taxing-e-cig-stores-out-of-business/#ixzz3eICgxuKz
Those employees also might be soon out of their jobs due to a new tax being contemplated by the DC city council. The tax could treat e-cigarettes like tobacco-burning cigarettes, despite the fact that vaping products contain no actual tobacco — just a nicotine-infused “juice” that is turned into water vapor instead of smoke.
While a debate still burns in the public health community about just how much e-cigarettes help smokers kick the habit, the DC city council is poised to end the argument early. On June 30, the council is set to vote on a budget amendment that would slap a 70 percent excise tax on e-cigarettes and related vaping products, a move that will likely drive District Vape and several other small independent stores in the city out of business.
...
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed the amendment to try to fill revenue holes in the city’s 2016 budget. The tax would raise $400,000, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute has estimated. But Robinson insists that the city will get none of that revenue from stores like his because they will just have to close their doors.
The tax change, the Vapor Product Amendment Act, would classify e-cigarettes and associated vaporized nicotine delivery devices as “other tobacco products” and subject them to the same 70 percent wholesale tax used for normal cigarettes.
The policy would effectively cut off supplies for independent vaping shops. A vendor of a $100 e-cigarette device, for example, would have to pay an extra $70 to the city in order to sell to District Vape.
“No vendor would want to sell me anything” if the council approves the tax change, Robinson told The Daily Caller. Similar stores in the city like DC Vape Joint already often sometimes have to partner up with him to buy supplies in amounts large enough to meet the minimum quantity for vendor orders that one store could not afford alone, he said.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/26/dc-considers-taxing-e-cig-stores-out-of-business/#ixzz3eICgxuKz