Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Cigar Tax

Washington is considering a 20,000% tax hike on cigars. That's ten-bucks a stogie -- over and above what you already pay for a premimum smoke.

U.S. cigar makers worry the hike could put them out of business -- and no one's sue if the guy who likes the occassional smoke is going to slap down $20 or more for a cigar -- when he could get a couple of fifths of bourbon for the same price and drown his misery over high cigar prices.

Democrats in Congress want an extra $35-50-billion for state children's health insurance. Cigarette taxes would jump to $1 even -- up 35-cents over current federal taxes. Cigars currently have a 5-cents per cigar tax. But they'd see a 53% hike -- and one plan in the Senate caps the tax hike at $10 per stogie.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But to Washington everything is something waiting to be taxed. (tampabay.com)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why is it that insurance for children is being used as an excuse to put this kind of tax on cigars. Who out there realizes that this concern of children insurance has risen from all the illegals' children born in the USA (illegal and mostly paid for by our welfare system now}. This is extreme taxation and will not just affect the cigar makers but many other businesses that stem from the making & selling of cigars.