Chicago Passes New Cigar Tax; Raises Minimum Tobacco Purchasing Age to 21

[TomF]

This is why I hope the embargo stays in place. I'm happy to have FOH, and I'm happy to be able to order cigars without paying these exorbitant taxes.

http://halfwheel.com/chicago-passes-new-cigar-tax-raises-minimum-tobacco-purchasing-age-to-21/109948?utm_content=buffer0c277&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Discuss..

[Overproof]

20 cents ($4.80 per box) isn't much is it? Sorry, I live in Australia.

[JohnInCleveland]

As much as I hate Illinois politics, I'll save my outrage for things worse than that.

Sort of seems like a pointless tax bc it isn't likely to generate much revenue, but hurting B&M stores only helps strengthen the virtue of our hosts

[Lotusguy]

California just passed a similar law, raising minimum age to 21.

[TomF]

20 cents ($4.80 per box) isn't much is it? Sorry, I live in Australia.

No, it's not, point taken, but you know slippery slopes and all...

[DoubleDD]

The real challenge in Chicago is not getting shot on your way to pay the extra money for the tobacco.

[brschoppe]

20 cents ($4.80 per box) isn't much is it? Sorry, I live in Australia.

Actually, that is on top of the already existing taxes by other taxing bodies

Every premium cigar imported to the U.S. is taxed at 52.75% of the wholesale price, and that is capped at 40.26 cents per cigar.

The Chicago is in the state of Illinois. Illinois taxes cigars at 36%.

Chicago is also in Crook, I mean Cook County, and on large cigars they tax them at $.30 per cigar..

While certainly not as bad as other countries, for non-Cuban cigars, the price adds up very quickly!

Luckily for me, I live in Lake County near the Wisconsin boarder so I can cross over and cigar taxes there are capped at $0.50/ per cigar.

[Fuzz]

Never fear our American brethren. Soon your lawmakers will see the light and make necessary changes like; adopting the metric system, driving on the left side of the road, tax inclusive price tags, stop calling the sugary swill at Starbucks "coffee", heavily taxing tobacco by the kilo (yes, the metric system!)....

[RonR]

The tax increase is only part of this. They also raised the minimum age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21, which means that now 18yo's who can fight and die for their country, not only can not legally drink a beer, but now also can not enjoy a smoke.

Rahm Emmanuel is the biggest POS to hit Chicago in recent history...and considering it's Chicago that we're talking about, that is a real accomplishment.

This will just continue to hurt retailers with Chicago addresses and lead to more cigar smokers buying outside the city (and usually outside of Cook County) just as their cigarette using brethren already do. The potential bright side is that hopefully this leads to a net loss in revenue to the city which is what they deserve.

A friend of mine used to own a White Hen Pantry in Chicago (local convenience store chain that was bought out by 7/11). He went to one of these meetings a few years ago when a debate was going on about adding another increase to Chicago's cigarette taxes. He asked the guy at the podium what he hoped to accomplish, and knowing that the BS premise was to "protect the children," he then asked him that if he was so concerned about "the children", then why wouldn't he try to outlaw them completely? I think he's still waiting for his answer to that question.

Whenever something is a cooked up money generating scheme, they try to say "it's for the children." I can say pretty confidently that even if this tax increase would be sufficient to fund the summer program, that it will never get used for that. The lottery was allowed here based on the premise that its proceeds would be used to fund education...again, for the kids, and again it did not come to pass. Wanna know how much I hate Chicago and its mayor? A few years ago, Rahm brought in red light cameras "to protect the children." More recently he has now also added speed trap cameras, again for "the children." Claiming this would ensure safer driving around schools, he set a diameter around every Chicago school that was so wide, that the speeding cameras now "protect" over 55% of the city. Ironically, the media found out that Rahm's limo had accrued a couple of dozen speeding tickets that were all unpaid. Well, Rahm paid those tickets and claimed it was oversight. Six months later...he had another dozen or so unpaid speeding camera tickets.

[Fuzz]

[mash]

The real challenge in Chicago is not getting shot on your way to pay the extra money for the tobacco.

That's what I was thinking. What's the minimum age to own an AK47?

[fookite]

What they ended up with is way better than what was proposed, which would have all but killed cigar retailers in the city. Not that I particularly care, all of my cigars come from continents far away. My bigger beef is the ban they passed on smokeless tobacco at sporting events - I apparently can't use my snus at Hawks games now.

[DoubleDD]

My bigger beef is the ban they passed on smokeless tobacco at sporting events - I apparently can't use my snus at Hawks games now.

The players can't use it either. Ridiculous.

[skalls]

That's what I was thinking. What's the minimum age to own an AK47?

If I recall the last 4473 I filled out, 21 is the minimum age to buy one yourself. Family member can gift one to you if your between 18 and 21. Provided no one is a felon or otherwise barred from ownership