Does this signal higher pipe tobacco taxes?

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
G

gkhanna74

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
127
Reaction score
10
Guys,

I just read the following...http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/665083.pdf

It is a government accountability office report from July that details how RYO tobacco products have been rebranded as pipe tobacco to avoid the higher taxation associated with RYO. It further suggests eliminating this loophole. It is a long read, but worthwhile, and worrisome.

It makes me want to build my cellar much more aggressively

 
As soon as RYO became repackaged as pipe tobacco, the writing was on the wall. The government will close the loophole and enjoy the increased tax revenue. It's just a matter of time. One look at the graph, and you can see exactly where the tax hike will take place, too. Since 2009 pipe tobacco sales have skyrocketed, whereas RYO levels have dropped steadily.

There have been efforts by the industry to clearly define the parameters between pipe tobacco and RYO. I know Greg Pease (among others) was involved in drafting proposals to establish what those were, too. I haven't heard anything about it lately, though.
 
Well golly gee wiz! Our gubmint in action.
Lets see. I quit cigarettes/pipes completely a year and a half ago. Prior to that I went the roll your own route because of excessive taxation. The state had doubled its excise tax per pack to $2.00. On recommendations, I bought a cheap machine and a tub of Bugler. Wasn't as convenient as "Gimme a pack of Camels" but a helluva lot cheaper. Big can of Bugler for ten bucks and a box of tubes for another dollar. Bought a better rolling machine. Then the government decided to raise the tax rate from (going on memory here) from $2.50/lb on roll your own cigarette tobacco to $27.00/lb. Panic!! Bought two cases of roll your own cigarette tobacco while I still could afford them. Then the "cigarette" RYO manufacturers realized the law said "cigarette" not "pipe" so they relabeled their packages as "pipe" tobacco. We knew it wasn't but that is how businesses stay in business when the government tries to kill them. Haven't seen a Can of Bugler in years though. That was probably five or more years ago. Now I'm into vaping and they want to tax the hell out of that too! Still have about 50 pounds of real pipe tobacco cellared though...And the pdf strikes me as they feel insulted that the people are trying to save money by doing this! Bastiches!!
 
I just hope that the pipe tobacco manufacturers can provide a definition of pipe tobacco that is distinctive enough from RYO to keep the tax rates where they are. In the meanwhile, I am going to add a lot to my cellar b/c a $22/lb increase in taxes, if it occurs, will really hurt.

By the way, it seems like the RYO tax seems targeted at the wrong kinds of people (those on a budget) and bad policy. It was probably favored by the big CIG companies -- basically taxes their competition.
 
In 1923 Mr. Bertolt Brecht put it in song "... money makes the world go round, the world go round " :twisted: :twisted:
 
Top