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Shown Here: Introduced in Senate (05/10/2012)
112th CONGRESS 2d Session
S. 3081
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax
rate parity among all tobacco products, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 10, 2012
Mr. Durbin (for himself,
Mr. Lautenberg, and
Mr. Blumenthal) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on
Finance
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax
rate parity among all tobacco products, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1.Short
title.
This Act may be cited as
the “Tobacco Tax Equity Act of
2012”.
SEC. 2. Establishing
excise tax equity among all tobacco product tax rates.
(a) Tax parity for
pipe tobacco and roll-Your-Own tobacco.—Section 5701(f) of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking “$2.8311
cents” and inserting “$24.78”.
(b) Tax parity for
smokeless tobacco.—
(1) Section 5701(e)
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended—
(A) in paragraph (1),
by striking “$1.51” and inserting “$13.42”;
(B) in paragraph (2),
by striking “50.33 cents” and inserting “$5.37”;
and
(C) by adding at the
end the following:
“(3) SMOKELESS
TOBACCO SOLD IN DISCRETE SINGLE-USE UNITS.—On discrete single-use
units, $50.33 per
thousand.”.
(2) Section 5702(m)
of such Code is amended—
(A) in paragraph (1),
by striking “or chewing tobacco” and inserting “chewing
tobacco, or discrete single-use unit”;
(B) in paragraphs (2)
and (3), by inserting “that is not a discrete single-use unit”
before the period in each such paragraph;
(C) by adding at the
end the following:
“(4) DISCRETE
SINGLE-USE UNIT.—The term ‘discrete single-use unit’
means any product containing tobacco that—
“(A) is not intended
to be smoked; and
“(B) is in the form of
a lozenge, tablet, pill, pouch, dissolvable strip, or other discrete single-use
or single-dose
unit.”.
(c) Tax parity for
large cigars.—Paragraph (2) of section 5701(a) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986, as amended by this Act, is amended by striking “but
not more than 40.26 cents per cigar” and inserting “but not less
than 5.033 cents per cigar and not more than 100.66 cents per
cigar”.
(d) Tax parity for
roll-Your-Own tobacco and certain processed tobacco.—Subsection
(o) of section 5702 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by
inserting “, or processed tobacco removed or transferred to a person
other than a person with a permit provided under section 5713” after
“wrappers thereof”.
(e) Clarifying
tobacco product definition and tax rate.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Subsection (c) of section 5702 of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:
“(c) Tobacco
products.—The term ‘tobacco products’ means—
“(1) cigars,
cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, pipe tobacco, and roll-your-own tobacco,
and
“(2) any other product
containing tobacco that is intended or expected to be
consumed.”.
(2) TAX
RATE.—Section 5701 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(i) Other tobacco
products.—Any product described in section 5702(c)(2) or not
otherwise described under this section, including any product that has been
determined to be a tobacco product by the Food and Drug Administration through
its authorities under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act,
shall be taxed at a level of tax equivalent to the tax rate for cigarettes on
an estimated per use basis as determined by the
Secretary.”.
(f) Effective
dates.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Except as provided in paragraph (2), the amendments made
by this section shall apply to articles removed (as defined in section 5702(j)
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) after the last day of the month which
includes the date of the enactment of this Act.
(2) DISCRETE
SINGLE-USE UNITS AND PROCESSED TOBACCO.—The amendments made by
subsections (b)(1)(C), (b)(2), and (d) shall apply to articles removed (as
defined in section 5702(j) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) after the date
that is 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act.