Roll-Your-Own Cigarette Machines Help Evade Steep Tax

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Wall Street Journal

WOOD DALE, Ill.—Scores of tobacco retailers in the U.S. are taking advantage of a federal tax loophole to offer deep discounts on roll-your-own cigarettes. But the practice is attracting scrutiny from regulators and cigarette manufacturers.

At Smoke Zone, a store in this Chicago suburb, customers one recent afternoon flocked to two high-speed rolling machines that produce a carton of cigarettes in eight minutes. The price: $21—less than half the cost of a carton of Marlboro cigarettes.

"People have waited an hour for these some days," said Taren DeNicolo, the store's manager.

About 150 tobacco outlets in some 20 states are deploying the novel roll-your-own machines to tempt recession-weary smokers, according to an estimate by one maker of the devices. But some regulators say the stores may be violating U.S. and state laws that govern cigarette manufacturing.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704913704575453584132202718.html?mod=e2tw

[pleah]

1. K&R

:smoke: I switched to filter cigars at a fraction of the price of cigs.

[virgogal]

2. A carton of Marlboro's would cost about $85.00 in MA. Grossly overtaxed.

Good for those "roll your own" folks.

[meegbear]

5. Cal's News in Lynn has a rolling machine for those who choose to ...

I smoke cigars, so I deal with the sin taxes.

[DJ13]

3. The higher the tax the more people who are forced to find another way

A sin tax on one of the most addictive substances is extremely cruel on the poor.

[virgogal]

6. There are a couple of group homes near me for people who have difficulty

living on their own

When the Federal government and MA upped their cig taxes at the same time last winter a poor guy from one of these group homes actually cried in the store because he didn't have enough money for a pack.

Needless to say I bought him one.

[elocs]

17. Schizophrenics have a smoking rate of up to 90% compared to 20-25% in general.

For some reason it helps them to think better, but the high cost of tobacco takes a huge bite out of their meager SSI or other earnings. I am about to take my 19 year old goddaughter who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia to buy a carton of cigarettes from the cigarette outlet here in MN, just over the WI state line, for $40. She is excited because she will get her first paycheck this week (in addition to her SSI) but she will be surprised when she finds her pack a day habit will eat up a third of the money she makes each month.

[virgogal]

26. It's tough.isn't it? .I wish your goddaughter well.

[Warpy]

7. It also does them a favor

because those high end rolling machines are out of reach and the ones within reach are not all that great, a real pain in the ass. In addition, the loose tobacco doesn't have all the additives they're used to that boost the wallop the nicotine delivers, so the results will be less than optimum.

Some of them will undoubtedly switch to breathing fresh air after a while. That's the pattern I've seen in people who have switched to rolling their own to save money. The ones who are able to quit will quit. The ones who are not will be able to save a little money by sacrificing more time out of their lives to roll the damned things.

E cigs are the way to go for addicts who still have adequate income because they also dodge the tax, at least for now, until they are finally able to quit.

Remember, being addicted to anything means owing your life to whoever is profiting from it.

[Lightning Count]

12. Just wait until the gov't establishes joint rolling machines.

At approved gov't potency levels of course. :).

[sofa king]

27. Words to live by, Warpy!

"Remember, being addicted to anything means owing your life to whoever is profiting from it."

Truth.

[mrcheerful]

4. Well I been hand rolling cigarettes since 1979 and when I started a .06 oz box of tobacco cost

$0.35 today that same box costs $4.51, a one pound bag that cost $20 5 years ago is now around $50 to $55. 5 years ago Michigan congress critters already raised the pre rolled cigarettes and people switched to self rolled cigarettes 5 years ago they hit them with a hefty tax.

[skoalyman]

9. its cheap here in ohio well until they close the loop hole

its called pipe tobacco but its realy normal tobacco with no flavoring added 12 something a pound even though its stringy you can still roll it 2 buck and change for box 200 filter tubes.

[The Wizard]

8. There's no cigarette tax

on loose tobacco. I did it for years but quit about five years and thirty pounds ago. The grade of tobacco is lower on cigarettes. Most of them would be class B if they didn't have a filter.

[Moosepoop]

24. All tobacco is taxed.

Each type of tobacco is taxed at a different rate -- cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, loose tobacco, even the papers and tubes for rolling your own are taxed. Federal taxes are first, each state can add whatever tax they want on top of that.

Five years ago, when you were smoking, cigarettes were federally taxed much more heavily than rolling tobacco. But in April of 2009, the federal government increased not only the cigarette tobacco tax, but also DRASTICALLY increased the rolling tobacco tax (at the behest of the cigarette companies).

The tax on rolling tobacco went overnight from $1.0969 per pound to $24.78 per pound. Or put another way, from not quite 7 cents per ounce to over $1.54 per ounce. At the store where I work, that raised the price of a pound bag of Gambler from $16.99 to almost $45.00. The 6 oz bag went from $6.79 to over $21.00. Sticker shock for those that had switched to rolling their own to save money!

This is why so many of the rolling tobacco manufacturers have switched to "pipe" tobacco. It's not really all pipe tobacco -- it's rolling tobacco with just enough pipe tobacco tossed in to get away with calling it that and, therefore, having it taxed as that. The tax on pipe tobacco increased last year as well, but it only went up from the same original $1.0969 per pound as rolling tobacco to $2.8311 per pound, a far cry from the $24.78 per pound that rolling tobacco went to.

Some rolling tobacco makers have launched new lines of their product that don't use any pipe tobacco, but instead "puff up" the rolling tobacco somehow so that it takes less by weight to roll the same number of cigarettes. The fewer ounces involved, the fewer ounces to tax. That's the idea behind Gambler's Tube Cut line and Top's SuperRoll line.

There most definitely IS a tax on rolling tobacco, and since April 1st of last year, it's been a whopper!
http://www.nocigtax.com/tax-facts/federal

[Political_Junkie]

10. Been rolling my own for years.

Cheaper and healthier, none of the additives that are in store bought cigs.

[Cal Carpenter]

11. Me too

Although I do it by hand, not with a machine. The tax on rolling tobacco went up recently along with the cig tax, but it still costs me only $30 a month, smoking about 8-10 a day.

I never get that awful smoker's cough I used to get when I smoked pre-made cigs. I know there is little, if any, science to prove it (thanks to the big tobacco companies) but I really believe the health risks are much lower when you are smoking pure tobacco and not the hundreds of other things that are in the tobacco blend and paper in 'regular' smokes.

[KansDem]

13. Time to pull out that old roller from my college days...

Now, what's this about "tobacco?" :smoke:

[Divine Discontent]

14. "tobacco" --- now that says SO much about you! LOL...

[SteveM]

20. "T-o-b-a-c-c-o?" Funniest spelling yet for the stuff I rolled. nt

[Celtic Merlin]

25. Don't put tobacco in one of those!

It'll cause a rift in the space-time continuum and people will get hurt.

Celtic Merlin
Carlinist

[McCamy Taylor]

15. Because the poor, who have no access to health care, should still have access to cancer, heart and

lung disease! It is their right as Americans!

[slackmaster]

16. I they start taxing all forms of tobacco at the high rate charged for cigarettes,

More people will figure out that they can grow their own tobacco.

[Bennyboy]

18. The tobacco is MUCH Better too..

natural. no additives. fresher.

I ahd one of those machines, we shared one around the neighborhood (Cost 450 bux) and we save huge and smoked quality cigs with no additives or chemicals. Also that was grown in the US not imported and destructive to forests.

[slackmaster]

22. Yes, I had a roommate in college who rolled his own cigs from Drum pipe tobacco

They were really, really good.

[Redstone]

19. Yeah, I saw that when I was in rehab. They labeled the tobacco as "pipe tobacco"

to avoid the cigarette-tobacco taxes. Great deal: It worke3d out to about a buck per pack of cigs.

Redstone

[SteveM]

21. Here, have another serving of prohibition. Yes, more. It's good for you. nt

[Synicus Maximus]

23. I remember having a rolling machine way back. You could even

buy filters so you could roll filter tips. Of course we always used tobacco to roll the cigarettes.

[skids]

28. Holy Crap!

27 posts in a tobacco thread and no flame war! Not even a decent attempt at trolling! :+

[inna]

29. Arne Duncan's reforms SUCK, btw

what's with your sig? is that a freaking joke??