Smoking should become more expensive: Bundestag votes for tobacco tax reform

Those who smoke and vape will probably be asked to pay more in the future.

The Bundestag approves a reform of the tobacco tax from 2022.

Berlin - Smoking should become more expensive from 2022. In the future, consumers of cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos will probably have to pay more. On Friday night, the majority of the Bundestag approved a reform of the tobacco tax. Vaping e-cigarettes and tobacco heaters are also taxed higher. Liquids that are used for vaping should be subject to tobacco tax. So far, sales tax has been applied to e-cigarettes. An additional tax is to be introduced for heated tobacco - so-called heat-not-burn products - so that in future there will be taxation similar to that of cigarettes.

The finance committee of the Bundestag * had already decided on the draft for the modernization of the tobacco tax law introduced by the federal government and made a number of changes, including an adjustment of the tax rates.

An increase to 12.28 cents is now planned for each cigarette instead of the previous 11.1 cents.

Reform of the tobacco tax decided by the Bundestag - criticism from the Association of the E-Cigarette Trade

In addition, the taxation of liquids for e-cigarettes will be expanded to include nicotine-free substances - the tax base will be changed from milligrams of nicotine to millimeters of the substance.

In addition, an additional tax on water pipe tobacco is to be introduced.

The Association of the E-Cigarette Trade expressed sharp criticism of the reform of the tobacco tax, which is also being dealt with by the Federal Council *. Taxing liquids generally higher than tobacco cigarettes "and thus ignoring the 95 percent lower potential for damage is health policy madness," declared the association and warned against a return of consumers to tobacco cigarettes.