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THE GOVERNMENT IS weighing up the charge it’s set to apply to e-cigarettes in the forthcoming Budget.
In its tax strategy paper on vapes and nicotine cigarettes, it said that the current rates applied by other EU Member States which tax e-liquids range from €0.10 to €0.30 per millilitre of e-liquid in the vape.
The decision on what rate to apply will fall to the new Finance Minister Jack Chambers to decide in October’s Budget.
The paper outlines that there is widespread consensus on the need to update tobacco tax legislation in order to include vapes in the scope for taxation, particularly out of health concerns due to e-cigarettes.
In light of continuing delays to the revision of the Tobacco Products Tax Directive, public health interests and the Programme for Government commitment to tax e-cigarettes and vaping products, it’s intended that a domestic tax on e-cigarette liquids will be legislated for in this year’s Finance Bill.
The previous finance minister Michael McGrath made this promise when delivering last year’s Budget statement.
The Programme for Government committed the government to “bring in a targeted taxation regime to specifically discourage ‘vaping’ and e-cigarettes”.
Currently, VAT is charged on vaping products but they do not have excise duty levied on them like normal cigarettes.
Billed as a healthier alternative to smoking, vaping began to take off in Ireland a decade ago, with e-cigarettes becoming increasingly widely available through standalone shops, convenience stores and petrol stations.
While the industry has long claimed its products are a less harmful way to help people quit smoking, Irish health authorities have for many years advocated a precautionary approach, particularly due to the presence of highly addictive nicotine.
Strategy paper
From an administrative perspective, officials believe a broad tax base is “typically preferred as it reduces tax administration costs” and allows increased revenue to be raised at lower rates.
The paper also notes that there are “difficulties in determining” the level of nicotine that vapes may contain, with officials considering whether it would be “most effective” to apply a tax to all e-liquids regardless of nicotine content.
“This approach reduces the potential for tax avoidance and reduces the burden on tax authorities,” it added.
A nicotine-based tax may also be “difficult to administer and enforce” due to the availability of DIY mixtures and the ability to sell components separately, the paper continued.
How other European countries tax vaping
When looking at how other EU member states have reacted to the issue, the strategy paper notes that they have adopted varying
domestic taxation policies but that some do not impose any tax.
The EU’s Tobacco Products Directive legislates that e-liquids for sale in the EU do not contain nicotine in excess of 20 mg/ml.
In jurisdictions where a duty applies, it is typically on the basis of a euro rate per ml of e-liquid.
It also notes that the departed UK Government announced in its Spring Budget the intention to introduce a new excise duty on vaping products from 1 October 2026. However, Irish officials believe they are “proposing a more complex regime” as it will have three rate bands depending on the nicotine content of the product.
The UK strategy also proposes additional restrictions on flavours and for disposable vapes to be banned from April 2025.
As there is a lack of harmonised policy across the EU for vapes, it’s thought that this increases the likelihood of smuggling and illicit trade.
“Due to the size of the products concerned, and the fact that they are liquid-based, they are easily portable and may be difficult to detect from a customs perspective,” the paper said.
“However, while the implementation environment is challenging, it does not undermine the argument for applying a tax as one tool in the overall public health policy approach to e-cigarettes.”
As there is a lack of harmonised policy across the EU for vapes, it’s thought that this increases the likelihood of smuggling and illicit trade.
“Due to the size of the products concerned, and the fact that they are liquid-based, they are easily portable
and may be difficult to detect from a customs perspective,” the paper said.
“However, while the implementation environment is challenging, it does not undermine the argument for applying a tax as one tool in the overall public health policy approach to e-cigarettes.”
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Taxed for trying to quit.
An absolute joke.
@Trevor Hoyden: someone has to pay for RTE cars flip flops etc etc,,,
@Trevor Hoyden: why do you think all vapers are former smokers?
They aren’t, and going forward, former smokers will make up fewer and fewer of vapers.
No one is forcing you to vape.
@Trevor Hoyden: vapes are not for people quitting. It’s just another form of smoking.. The majority of teens and people in their 20s started off on vapes and have never actually smoked a cigarette. They should be banned completely. Highly dangerous.
@Seamus Balfe: shut up Seamus, people have a choice like they do with alcohol, cigarettes and food and drink with high levels of sugar. Most of the people I know that smoke them, myself included, are former smokers. Take your nanny state tut tut attitude and swing.
@James Reardon: what a warrior you are .
@Paul O’Mahoney: sounds like a 12 year olds response, hand mammy back her phone and help put away the laundry ya poor wee soul.
@Seamus Balfe: you are completely wrong
@James Reardon: so we ban everything dangerous? Drink, driving, going in the sea etc?
@James Reardon: alcohol, cigarettes and sugar are all taxed, so should nicotine. Just give it up and don’t pay the tax. It’s not hard to do, don’t convince yourself it is.
@James Reardon: Wow, scary stuff, are always this angry, or did you not achieve much in life and felt that anger was the answer?
@Paul O’Mahoney: lol projecting are we pauly wally? Shake yer little rattle like a good boy.
@John D Doe: how did you get that from what I said? I was replying to a comment where it was said they are dangerous and should be banned. I then made the point that it’s people choice if they want to do it, like cigarettes, alcohol etc etc. Sounds like you need a coffee and a smoke yer self to wake up.
@Soundy Sound: Thing is, the young men and women now vaping would have been smokers in the past. Vaping poses a tiny fraction of the risks in tobacco. There is no health justification for this tax proposal. They should maybe ban disposable vapes on environmental grounds. Vaxing liquids will just discourage smokers quitting and a black market will thrive. Ridiculous idea that has not worked elsewhere.
@Seamus Balfe: I smoked 20 carrolls a day and more if i went out and could give them up as much as i tried, then I started to vape and gradually decreased nicotine in the vape until i eventually reached zero, I’m off the fags now since june 2013, if I didn’t vape I’d still be smoking and I’m not alone , many people quit smoking thanks to vapes.
@Seanie: *couldn’t
@Trevor Hoyden: being taxed for the cost it will bring to exchequer when they suffer ill health as a result of vaping! It’s fair enough, really!
@Soundy Sound: 25-30 cigs a day, went on patches and quit, found it difficult when out socialising so went on to 0% nicotine vape.
I apologize for my addiction but not everyone has your willpower, hopefully the vape will be gone soon.
It’s an aid to quitting.
@Seamus Balfe: well said 100% agree
@Alex Brennan: You don’t mention coffee? Currently taxed like nicotine vapes as consumer products as they share many similarities. Vaping is nicotine consumed without tobacco and highly carcinogenic tar. As benign as caffeine. We should also put an excise duty on coffee, by your reasoning.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/nicotine-vs-caffeine?c=1595514488883
@AphroBeat: there have been no costs to the exchequer to date. Reality is that, as a nation, were saving money by having people switch from tobacco. There is no justification for further taxes on vaping from a health perspective. In fact, I think the current vat should be removed to encourage more smokers to quit and ban disposables on environmental grounds, or, as someone suggested here, make them part of a national recycling scheme as with plastic bottles and cans.
@Seamus Balfe: where is the proof?
Ah the auld tax, all this government is good at
@Shaun Gallagher: Yes, it seems to be their solution to everything. No real ideas apart from tax.
Taxing a product that is proven to help people give up cigarettes, ya couldn’t make it up
@Brian Pocock: Vaping is proven to damage lungs and is cancercinagenic!
@AphroBeat: the only thing being damaged is our pockets people know what happens to them with vape alcohol ect it’s called freedom to live without interference from government
Oh dear…people are giving up their cash cow cigarettes…quick tax the ones going on the vape to quit cigateytes so we can squeeze a few quid out of it…(unts
@damien leen: you p!ssed or stoned typing that?.
@Andrew Clavin: not a stupid comment at all. Don’t you think the potential loss of smokers who switch to vaping hasn’t been considered? This is one of the major reasons why governments are cracking down. India outright ban. Also Indian government heavily indebted to tobacco. Huge market. What government would be brave enough to give that up? I expect more from Ireland.
Vaping helped me quit cigarettes a few years ago.
@Áine G: What will you use to quit vapes?
@biggybald: smokes
@biggybald: she could probably use vapes to quit vapes if she wishes, by lowering and lowering the nicotine content to taper off. That’s the transition my mother made from smoking to vaping to 0% nicotine vaping to nothing. Vaping is awful in general but the above can be done.
Hello black market vapes.
Everywhere that excise duty has been imposed on vaping has resulted in an increase in smoking rates. Smokers are discouraged from quitting while those vaping go back to smoking. If a tax is being imposed on nicotine content, will it also be applied to nicotine sprays, patches or gums? If not, why not? Vaping has been proven to be far more effective for quitting than these products which are pushed by the HSE at tax payer expense. I understand taxing cigarettes as they contain proven carcinogenics in the tar consumed. Nicotine is not a carcinogen.
@NoelDublin: Source for your claim that taxing vapes results in an increase in cigarette smoking rates? It’s a pretty bold statement and I’d find it hard to believe that even with a small increase in the price of vapes they are in any way comparable to the cost of cigarettes nowadays.
@NoelDublin: But the chemicals and metals found in them such as acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, Acrolein, Diacetyl, Diethylene glycol, Cadmium, Benzene, nickel, tin and lead are all grand Noel.
@biggybald: That is totally incorrect. Vapes are strictly regulated in the EU. We know what’s in them. Diacetyl has been specifically banned for years. Now let’s hear a list of the hundreds of actually dangerous components in a cigarette…a product that government is happy to raise revenue from and sold in your local sweet shop. Vaping is not the problem.
@NoelDublin: A recent study by a team at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) suggests a “new wave of chronic diseases” could result from widespread use of flavoured vapes. The research team used AI modelling to suggest that 127 damaging chemicals are potentially formed as devices heat liquid for inhalation. A further 153 harmful chemicals classified as “health hazards” and another 225 chemicals described as “irritants” may also be present.
@Jason Memail: There are many. It’s very difficult to find factual info on Google due to the massive anti vaping campaign being waged by Bloomberg. Unfortunately, our health policy makers seem to rely on Google rather than science. This Research shows that cigarettes and e-cigarettes are economic substitutes: a 1% rise in e-cigarette taxes raises combustible cigarette consumption by 5.3% (Pesko et al, 2020).
The Economics Observatory have a very good piece on this whole issue. Just wish our government would take this complex issue more seriously. Taxing vaping is anti health and very bad policy.
@biggybald: could is the key word there. Lots of other studies contradict that. Don’t ask me to find now….don’t have time!
@biggybald: Three words, “could” , “potentially”, “may” so really the royal college of surgeons of Ireland have said nothing concrete at all in their study, nothing that they’ll stand by anyway.
@NoelDublin: They said the same about cigarettes in the 40s/50s and now look
@Seanie: We will just have to and see I suppose Seanie. But let’s not forget those words or similar along with the paid recommendations by doctors for certain brands of cigarettes in the 40s/50s. Time will tell.
Government logic: lets tax devices that help people lay off cigarettes, lol.
@Andrew Clavin: I love my vape, I got a Smok Nord2 recently with blueberry sour raspberry liquid. It’s so nice that when you smell the liquid my mouth instantly waters, it smells so nice haha
@Andrew Clavin: lots of adults make poor decisions. Drink too much, eat junk food. Difference here is that vaping is a far far better substitute for smoking cigarettes. We should be encouraging smokers to switch, not suggesting to them that they’re the same product so carry on smoking, as this tax will do and as believed by some of the more idiotic contributors here.
Granny state alve and preacher
How about if sold in a pharmacy they are not taxed and limit the type that can be sold. Would impact younger people accessing them but for those who are trying to quit smoking they can still avail of them?
Ah the vapes 10 years it took the government to bring in legislation to ban sales to under18′s shops could and did sell to children with their confirmation money it was the pressure put on them that made them do it watermelon blue razz cola peach strawberry melon and at least a dozen other flavours presentation superb big tobacco love vapes government dithering about banning flavours why don’t they start and by making all boxes same colour like cigarettes probably in 20 years if they tax vapes they won’t be in any hurry to do anything vapes are lethal addictive but the new golden goose to big tobacco and the government
@Stephen Byrne: they’re dithering because flavour bans don’t work. Flavours are critical for smokers weaning themselves off tobacco.
Don’t tax them, ban them
Vapes should not be taxed. They should be made available by prescription only.
Of course the budget won’t become so dependent on this addiction-related income source that the government will lose any incentive to shut the whole market down, right? Right?
@Juan Jesús García de Soria Lucena:
Sorry, I meant addiction-driven, not -related.
@Juan Jesús García de Soria Lucena: I suppose that’s one silver lining. Vaping saves lives.
I used vapes to stop smoking and that was the only thing that actually worked. But I had to reduce the nicotine regularly until zero… Then I found I did not need them anymore.
The politicians only care about any form of revenue. Good or bad thing is not actually in consideration.
Paying the TV license AND getting funded with public money is another example on how much they do the long finger at us… And they are fine, because people keep voting for the same gombeens
Maybe a deposit scheme for disposable vapes???
@Notty Tee: I actually said this to someone yesterday, especially because there are no real accessible places to recycle them (not that I’m aware of at least).
We’ll soon be the most expensive country in Europe for that as well. No wonder the craic is gone out of the place, I thought about leaving the house the other day for a pint and some food but I’m still paying the credit union for the loan I took out the last time I left the house to do something other than work.
How about a ban on them ? But no money in that !
@Navanman: how about banning tobacco and not harm reduction? No money in that for sure.
They should be banned out right. The amount of teenagers who have taken them up is ridiculous. I wish cigarettes had been banned when I was a teenager. 30 years smoking now.
@Polly Barrett: you do know this is about vaping, not smoking? If so, you really should look at them to quit. I also had an over 30 years heavy smoking habit. Quitting by switching to vape was a life saver. My lung function now that of a never smoker. Please don’t buy into the misinformation. Look at vaping with fresh eyes and, good health.
Take a look at this from the NHS:
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/vaping-to-quit-smoking/#:~:text=It’s%20important%20to%20choose%20an,Smoking%20Service%20can%20advise%20you.
“People who quit smoking and then took up vaping were more likely to develop lung cancer than those who did not vape, according to the pre-print study conducted in South Korea. The study was not peer-reviewed at time of writing.
“This is the first large population-based study to demonstrate the increased risk of lung cancer in e-cigarette users after smoking cessation,” said Yeon Wook Kim, who led the study at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.”
This was published in March and hasn’t been peer reviewed yet but it’s a large study.
@Paul O’Mahoney: unverified, meanwhile in Ireland there are 4500 smoking related deaths per annum, vapes are around 20 years and 0 fatalities
@Brian Pocock: I mentioned that it’s not peer reviewed and that usually takes a year , have you a link to a study that shows that vaping hasn’t caused one death in Ireland.
@Paul O’Mahoney: I haven’t a link, but you can be sure that if anyone who has died from vaping, the WHO would have informed us
@Paul O’Mahoney:
” E-cigarettes linked to five deaths in Britain
23 June 2023
“To put these numbers in context, cigarette smoking causes about 76,000 deaths a year in the UK,” commented Professor Jamie Brown (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health) who agreed that the new data emphasised the dangers of vaping.”
@Paul O’Mahoney: believe me, if a single death had occurred from vaping, it would be headline news in a media full of vape misinformation and the HSE would be crowing about it from the rooftops. Cigarettes however…
@Paul O’Mahoney: again, unverified and underlying conditions
@Brian Pocock: Well look at the extract I posted. Similarly the CDC is the US have issued warnings about the dangers of vaping….
Why would the WHO be involved they are really more concerned with pandemics, or massive threats to populations around the world.
So it’s your opinion that nobody has died from vaping despite evidence elsewhere to show otherwise
@Paul O’Mahoney: if you can name me one person who has died solely from vaping, then we can talk
@Brian Pocock: where did it say that?
Are you now changing your initial statement? Most vaping is done my ex smokers , before children got involved, surely ex smokers would not be as healthy as non smokers. And as the non peered reviewed Korean study indicates there might be a link.
You’ve obviously got skin in the game
@NoelDublin: Why would it be headline news, smoking deaths aren’t reported individually and there are thousands of those every year…
@Paul O’Mahoney: you’re searching for something that doesn’t exist, you’ll be there for a very long time, I’m afraid, but I wish you luck
@Brian Pocock: but how would you verify that person’s name? I mean it’s ludicrous to take such a narrow view, there are studies that are indicating that vaping isn’t healthy and an awful lot of countries are now putting on restrictions on their sale. Why would countries do that if vaping was good for you?
You make statements you can’t verify them professionally scientists are carrying out research on vaping some are suggesting that vaping deaths are a reality, but you cast those findings aside without any proof that they are wrong.
Curious behaviour
@Brian Pocock: According to you and you alone, I’m more inclined to go with professionals who actually research the issue.
But it is there
@Paul O’Mahoney: Google. Bloomberg. Campaign. Anti vaping. The guy has bought up institutions, including the WHO, media, education facilities like Stanford. You have to dig deep, but not too deep, to find credible research in this area. Without a doubt, vaping is far far safer as an alternative for smokers. Not to be recommended for non smokers but young people will. You put laws in place to restrict access to teens, enforce it. Will certain teens get around it? Of course they will. And they’ll drink and do drugs, both much more serious. BUT, the very very good news is, that they’re vaping and not smoking as they would be ten years ago. The saddest thing is that Irish health policy is so mislead and as a result, they’re keeping smokers smoking. And it’s hard not to be cynical.
Tax everything to pay TD wafes
Taxed them to the max! If people are stupid enough to smoke them! Furthermore they are a nuisance! Tired of smelling them on the streets. Maybe working people can pay some less tax instead now
@peter lynch: you can’t smoke them, that’s the whole point of their existence
Its either tax everything or ban everything and its all on health grounds do they really think this is going to buy them the election they should think again people are not going to forgive or forget what this rotten corrupt government have done to our Country
They should have a deposit return scheme for them
@colm ducker: that’s actually not a bad idea with the disposables.
Don’t bother taxing them. Simply make it a requirement to have a doctors prescription to buy them. After all they were designed to help smokers quit
@Means Of Escape: Yes but the Irish authorities would then have to accept the fact that they’re an effective quit method, the most effective. They’re not willing to admit to that.
Cigarettes or vaping? They both kill.
@Billy Joe: incorrect. Vaping saves lives. Cigarettes are lethal.
@Billy Joe: love a source for that. You’re half right, Billy. I’ve read a lot of real resources. Not a single death globally from nicotine vaping in over 20 years that vaping has been on the market. Meanwhile, you’re right about smoking. Stats widely available on tobacco related deaths.
have your say