Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah's tobacco tax increase starts next week and convenience stores have signs set up telling smokers and other users to stock up now. They may be doing it to avoid paying more of the excise tax.
State Cigarette Excise Tax rates
| State | Tax | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Rhode Island | $3.46 | 1st |
| Washington | $3.025 | 2nd |
| Connecticut | $3.00 | 3rd |
| Hawaii | $3.00 | 3rd |
| New York | $2.75 | 5th |
| Montana | $1.70 | 17th |
| <b>Utah</b> | $1.70 | 17th |
Tinder Box owner Joan Cvar said a lot of her profits will go up in smoke due to a floor tax.
"We have to pay the tax in one lump sum. The product you saw in the humidor, all that has to be counted and taxed," she said.
Cvar said she has put a lot of her cigars and pipe tobacco on sale so that she doesn't have to pay so much on the floor tax. She said there hasn't been a huge influx of people clamoring to get stogies before the tax goes into effect.
"It's been slowly happening. People have been coming in and stocking up a little, but it's not any huge hordes of people. I don't think they really realize what's happening," she said.
The U.S. for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that smoking-caused health costs about $10.47 per pack sold and consumed in the U.S.
Cvar said this tax is a big question mark. She is not sure how this could affect her business, but her prices will go up.
"There's no way we cannot when you go from 36 percent tobacco tax to 86 percent tobacco tax," she said.
Cvar said she has a lot of loyal customers who will continue to come and shop for cigars, but she admits that this tax could put them out of business.
"We hope not, we're moving forward. This is just another challenge and we're in it for the long haul," she said.
E-mail:cwall@ksl.com
