The usually reliable Tax Policy Center says tax all e-cig liquid.
Why don’t they want to tax just nicotine?
Many drug policy scholars are enamored of taxing cannabis by THC – the active ingredient, the best nicotine analogue. Those folks would tax it even for flower (bud, raw plant material). Now THC can’t be easily sampled in flower. Raw plant material is not homogeneous enough. (And no one taxes solid tobacco by nicotine content.)
But in cannabis concentrates, THC can be more readily sampled. Canada is taxing THC in concentrates already.
Nicotine in vaping products can be readily sampled, too.
TPC says, “Michigan could take the lead and levy an extremely high excise tax on all vaping products—one not based on a percentage of the product’s relatively low price, and not based on the presence of nicotine. . . . How about a tax of a $1 per milliliter of vaping liquid? At least then a 15 milliliter cartridge would no longer be a relative bargain compared to cigarettes.”
I don’ get it. When Congressional staff used to draft tax laws, House Legislative Counsel Ward Hussey would ask, “What are you mad at?” Well, isn’t it nicotine?
[This replaces an earlier post.]
Here’s the cite: https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/michigan-lets-tax-not-ban-vape-products?cm_ven=ExactTarget&cm_cat=DD+10212019&cm_pla=All+Subscribers&cm_ite=https%3a%2f%2fwww.taxpolicycenter.org%2ftaxvox%2fmichigan-lets-tax-not-ban-vape-products&cm_lm=po@newrevenue.org&cm_ainfo=&&utm_source=%20urban_newsletters&&utm_medium=news-DD&&utm_term=TPC&&
The Center for New Revenue 