The bill will not raise the price of cigarettes at all.
President Biden is desperate to pass some version of this bill, which advances his promised social agenda. The bill has already been reduced from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion to satisfy skeptical moderates, so Biden is unlikely to quibble if Congress delivers him a bill—even if it forces him to break his tax promise to a small group like vapers.
If the Build Back Better bill passes with the nicotine tax language, the law would establish a federal tax on vaping products for the first time: $50.33 per 1,810 milligrams of nicotine, or 2.8 cents/mg. It would essentially double or triple the price of most bottled e-liquid, and it would apply to both tobacco-derived and synthetic nicotine.
The price of a 60 milliliter bottle of 12 mg/mL e-liquid would increase by $20. A 30 mL bottle of 50 mg/mL nicotine salts would jump by more than $40. And a liter of 100 mg/mL DIY nicotine—which typically costs less than $100—would increase by $2,780.
