online cigar cheap discount cigars online store Contact Us Cigars Frequently Asked Questions Shopping cart
cheap online cigars Discount cigars store have the lowest online prices on cheap cigar.
Best cigars - Cuban cigars!
Cuban cigars on My-Cuban-Cigars.com
31-Mar-2009
Cigar shop owners dislike tax hike

Much to the chagrin of tobacco enthusiasts and the delight of public health officials, it is getting more expensive to light up.
At midnight tonight a federal tax increase will take effect, affecting everything from pouches of roll-your-own tobacco to high-end cigars.
While cigarettes garner the lion's share of attention the per-pack federal tax increase will bump from 39 cents to $1.01 local and national players in the cigar industry are also bemoaning a tax boost, which places a federal levy of up to 40 cents on supersized stogies.
The previous federal tax cap for large cigars was just under 5 cents.
Norman Sharp, president of Cigar Association of America, thinks the new fee could be devastating to the industry. He did not rule out large cigars sales declining from 25 to 30 percent because of the tax bump.
Joe Batista's tobacco shop, Up in Smoke, has called Milford home for 13 years, but he doubts "very much we'll be here another 13 the way things are going."
Batista suggested other vices like fast food and alcohol share some of the fiscal burden.
Barry Cohen, manager of Watch City Cigar, on Rte. 9 in Framingham, is among the local merchants who believe cigar aficionados will either buy fewer or downgrade their quality of cigar.
Cohen said the federal tax boost was better than a state tax boost, which would give shops in other states a leg up through online orders.
Cohen says it could have been worse: he recalled the initial Capitol Hill buzz of a $10 cigar tax that would have "absolutely wiped out the industry."
And cigars were not hit nearly as hard as roll-your-own tobacco, which increased from a $1.09 per pound tax to a $24.78 per pound tax.
Leaning against a display case inside Watch City yesterday, Cohen points to bare spots on shelves that usually have pouches of that product.
"People have been stocking up," he said.
Sharp, meanwhile, thinks the tax is a case of "piling on" a cigar industry that the recession has already battered.
Gino Allia, owner of the Victory Cigar Bar, has noticed a dip in the percentage of cigar sales at his Sudbury establishment in recent months.
Before the recession, he estimated 62 percent of his sales were cigar-based. That number has now dipped to around 55 percent.
Now $12 cigars could become $13 cigars because of a state fee that is based partly on the federal tax, said Allia.
And the new tax is not helping matters.
"These taxes are in the thousands of percent," said Allia. "It's ridiculous."
But the boost has drawn praise from health officials, who say the more expensive it is to light up the better.
Congress passed the measure with the intention of using the funding to expand the financial umbrella of the State Children's Health Insurance Program - commonly referred to as S-CHIP. Essentially, it means more children will qualify for the program.
Eric Lindblom, research director for Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says the boost is great for both the fiscal and public health of the nation.
Lindblom says tobacco products such as cigars for years were "grossly undertaxed when compared to cigarettes."
This tax bump for cigars is the first since the Clinton administration. Then it was a two-phased increase that pales in comparison.
In 1999, there was a 3 cent tax cap. In 2000 it rose to just above 4 cents. And on Jan. 1, 2002, it increased again to just under 5 cents.
Cigars, said Lindblom, have harmful health ramifications like cigarettes. He also said they have "sweet and youth-friendly flavors," and can be addictive. Anything that deters tobacco use of any kind, he said, is a positive.
"This is an absolutely wonderful thing," said Lindblom.
All told, the tax could raise $33 billion for the expansion of health insurance in the next four-plus years.
Sharp called the expansion of health insurance availability for children "worthwhile," but asked, "why fund it on an eroding tax base?"
The passage of the bill, said Sharp, "did not involve any act of political courage."
Batista, of Up in Smoke in Milford, also questioned if the revenue gained from the tax would eventually be used for programs other than S-CHIP.
"The S-CHIP, it's not going to go solely for that, we all know that," said Batista.
Glynn Loope, executive director of Cigar Rights of America, worries this tax is just the initial salvo in what could turn into a ever-growing congressional cash cow.
"I think this was Round 1," said Loope.
He also questioned the whether expanding S-CHIP was the most efficient way to help the nation's uninsured.
"Is there anything that the government does that the private industry cannot do better?" asked Loope.


Source: Milford Daily News