CASPER, Wyo. — House Bill 73 aims to impose excise taxes on vaping products in Wyoming. The bill is now ready for Governor Mark Gordon’s consideration after the House of Representatives agreed to amendments to the bill adopted by the Senate on a concurrence vote of 46-14.
The House’s vote came during their Thursday, March 5 floor session.
The Senate’s amendment aimed to tax “closed system” vaping materials, such as JUULpods, at a higher rate than “open system” vaping materials, which refers to material used in refillable devices.
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The reason to tax the closed systems at a higher rate is due to concern that such systems are the ones more commonly accessed by high school students.
“The whole purpose of this bill is to add vapes into our tax structure,” House District 43: Representative Dan Zwonitzer said ahead of the House’s concurrence vote on Thursday, March 5. “Overall the bill looks good.”
He said that the bill proposes taxing vaping devices and material “at a slightly lower rate than we tax cigarettes” since some in the legislature think the vaping devices are used to help people quite using tobacco.
The Senate Revenue Committee’s amendment included a variety of changes to the proposed bill. A major change under that amendment would include a provision to tax “closed system” vaping material per milliliter.
“There is levied and assessed upon closed-system vapor material purchased or imported into this state by wholesalers for resale, an excise tax at the rate of five cents ($.05) per milliliter of closed-system vapor material and a proportionate tax at the like rate on all fractional parts thereof,” the amendment reads. “The tax on closed-system vapor material shall be imposed based on the vapor material volume as listed by the manufacturer.”
The bill would levy a 15% excise tax on e-cigarettes and “open system” vapor material imported into the state by wholesalers for resale. The bill would impose a 7.5% tax on the “use or storage by consumers of electronic cigarettes and vapor material in this state” when the wholesale tax rate has not been paid.
The House’s concurrence vote was as follows:
Ayes: BARLOW, BLACKBURN, BLAKE, BROWN, BURKHART, BURLINGAME, CLAUSEN, CLEM, CLIFFORD, CONNOLLY, CRANK, DAYTON-SELMAN, EKLUND, EYRE, FLITNER, FREEMAN, FURPHY, GREEAR, HALEY, HALLINAN, HUNT, KINNER, HARSHMAN, KIRKBRIDE, LARSEN LLOYD, LAURSEN DAN, LOUCKS, MACGUIRE, NEWSOME, NICHOLAS, NORTHRUP, OBERMUELLER, PAXTON, PELKEY, POWNALL, ROSCOE, SCHWARTZ, SIMPSON, SOMMERS, STITH, SWEENEY, WALTERS, WESTERN, WILSON, YIN, ZWONITZER
Nays: DUNCAN, EDWARDS, GRAY, HENDERSON, JENNINGS, LINDHOLM, MILLER, OLSEN, PIIPARINEN, SALAZAR, STYVAR, TASS, WASHUT, WINTERWyoming Legislative Service Office
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