Publications
Cigarette Taxes
The nation's first federal cigarette tax was enacted in 1864 as a Civil War revenue measure. In 2005 the federal cigarette tax stood at 37 cents per pack. The nation's first state-level cigarette excise tax was enacted in Iowa in 1921. By 1969 all 50 U.S. states had followed suit. In 2005 state-level cigarette taxes ranged from 7 cents per pack in South Carolina to $2.46 per pack in Rhode Island. The wide variety of state cigarette excise taxes provides opportunities for consumers to shop for bargains across borders—and for smugglers to make substantial profits.
Additional questions about cigarette taxes? Contact us at (202) 464-6200.
Publications from The Tax Foundation
- Border Zone Cigarette Taxation: Arkansas’s Novel Solution to the Border Shopping Problem, by Mark Robyn, April 9, 2009
- Funding S-CHIP with Federal Cigarette Tax Increase is Poor Tax Policy, by Joseph Henchman and Gerald Prante, January 15, 2009
- What Is Proper Tax Policy for Smokeless Tobacco Products?, by Gerald Prante, March 26, 2008
- State Tobacco Tax Rates Have Skyrocketed Since Last Federal Tax Increase, by Gerald Prante and Curtis S. Dubay, July 13, 2007
- Options for Funding SCHIP Expansion: Cigarette Taxes Least Defensible Alternative, by Gerald Prante, July 13, 2007
- What Is 300 Percent of the Poverty Level?, by Gerald Prante, July 11, 2007
- A State-by-State Estimate of the Impact of SCHIP Expansion and a 156 Percent Cigarette Tax Hike, by Gerald Prante, June 28, 2007
- Who Will Pay Taxes for Tennessee Governor's "Schools First" Initiative, and Who Will Receive the Spending?, by Andrew Chamberlain and Gerald Prante, April 18, 2007
- Tax Fairness Would Suffer under Senator Smith's Cigarette Tax Hike, by Patrick Fleenor, March 30, 2007
- Estimating Federal Tax Burdens for Major City Areas, Counties, and U.S. Congressional Districts, by Andrew Chamberlain and Gerald Prante, March 22, 2007
- California Schemin': Cigarette Tax Evasion and Crime in the Golden State, by Patrick Fleenor, October 5, 2006
- What Is Proper Tax Policy for Smokeless Tobacco Products?, by Gerald Prante, September 22, 2006
- State Excise Taxation: Horse-and-Buggy Taxes In an Electronic Age, by Richard E. Wagner, Ph.D., May 31, 2005
- Who Bears the Ancillary Cost of Tobacco Use?, by Patrick Fleenor, January 1, 2001
- Federal Excise Taxes and the Distribution of Taxes Under Tax Reform, by J. Scott Moody, January 1, 1999
- How Excise Tax Differentials Affect Interstate Smuggling and Cross-Border Sales of Cigarettes in the United States, by Patrick Fleenor, October 1, 1998
- Burning Issues in the Tobacco Settlement: An Economic Perspective, by Jane Gravelle, July 1, 1998
- How the McCain Bill Will Affect Smokers' Wallets and the Underground Cigarette Market, by Patrick Fleenor, March 1, 1998
- The Regressivity of Sin Taxes: The Lifetime Tax Burden of Taxes on Alcohol and Cigarettes, by Robert B. Schwab and Andrew B. Lyon, November 1, 1997
- Excise Taxes and Sound Tax Policy, by John R. McGowan, May 1, 1997