Tobacco Documents Online

. Cioar+ette Taxes. Tiv ~, srnokers pgid R.nough in cigamgitle taxes last year [,P 'm pa~, for the & space agency's fs$c91963' program,, _ . . th funds ~ Ie?ft to buy 40 Atlas missiies, ;according to To. Nicc.o News; pubhshed by The .obacco Institute, Inc. : CiKarette t4res last year brou about $3,1 billion 46 all llavelg~of government in the. U. Si--fedpral„ state and ibcal. The 1'963 budget of the. National Aeronautics and $pace Admin'jstration is $2.9t billion. Putting it;:OuPOW wpy, the apnual' cigOette tax col- leetion wonh} 1trowide enough money to pay for the 1963 @pclrRti.n4 ud;aW kry "overAmenk departmentls: Commerce, X.abor, Postolfiae, Sitate„ the Fe;deral Aviation Agency and *e General Services Adrncinistirakfon,, says Tobacco News.. Or the~: sami money would;,buy these it'erno:' # 27, Pelaris subrrlarinest, .1 a * About 90~per cen~t.of' all hsissiles to bE"built this;fis- caT year. ~ . Over . half of the U. S. military ~aircraft scheduledl for 1963. • 15'b;0010' new $2b.;000 1homes. . On the avet-age; taxes account for *half the price of : every' pack of cigarettes sold, says the publication. Tobacco, Is the most heavily taxed of all agricultural products. _ The first cigarette tax was levied to help finance the - Civil War. The last U. S. boost, to eight cents ai package, - was for the Korean War, but it has been in effect ever since. PRESS St. Mary's, Pennsylvania October 12, 1962' . (~4''Tcrcro's Tax Bill ~4 able to Untte Sam's Treasury, accordyng to ~, data just corinpi'Ved by Tobacco News; of- ficial publication of ~khe t~o industry. ~Initis most recen~tbuh'letinth,e Nevwssays, Uncle Samigpt $230,000 an hour from to- bocco bocco users, day and' night around the ~ clock in 1961 and there is no reosorn to believe it, will be any less this yeor: Q At the end of the Civi-I War the govern- ~ rmeht co9-lecfied three milliorn dollors onwvual- ty from the tobacco industry. By the ertd of ' WortdlVNar I I this had increased to 1'.5 bi1- Fiom dollars and ot the end of' 1961 hadl„ recSChed tft-o2 biYIilbrn fig*ure. Scr ycffu just can't f©y a lot of money goes up_ in. smoke. A` greQt deal of -it . goes into Urncle Sam's pocket. Every tirrie you puff' on a cigarette, a l~ 'cigar 'or, drad'o+'i a p•ipe you odd coMsider- ~ ~ IDISPATf.'H' - x,~nderson, Aorth Carolina . Qctober 12, 1962' ' Taxes By The Hour An indacation of' value of' the 'tobaccp' industry in, supporting the lavish spend'zng. outlays of the Federal government has been~ provided by The Tobacco Institute, Inc,' ' through its publica ion, obacco News. That; journal has calculated, on the basis of official. figures, that the Federal government alone ; collected $230,317:72I per hour around, the ' clock last year in excise taxes on manufae. ` ! tured tobacco products, chiefly cigarettes, or more than two billion dollars. Nor is that all ~ , . States, cities and counties took an additional :; two billion dollars, or one-eighth of a nullion ;; dollars every hour around the clock through-: out 1961. The tobacco dig was, exceeded only by ' taxes on alcoholic beverages in~ the amount' I.,' of $42.2 over the past one hundred years. ~ There are excise taxes on other products, each of which, and' aIl combined, were far ~ less important ir.come producers. , . Tobacco taxes were first imposed during ai,i the Civiil VfJar, to help finance that conflict : ~ . , , . for the Federal government. It was in the ;~ same year, 1362, that the Internal Revenue Service was established. Since the Civil War tax act, there have been twelve ir.creases in Federal taxes on cigarettes. The most' recent, now nearly ten years ago, was a penny a pack at the time of the Koreaw War. It was imposed with the assurance that' it would be temporary. But, like so many other levies, the temporary cigarette tax t:as' be-' permanent, and all efforts toward re moving it have proved' futile. .. v The Federal government' alone collects more taxes 4rom tobacco than, growers who produce the leaf receive for their crop. When State and local taxes are included, the take is nearly three times the return to farmers. It would seem to be about time producerss joined with the industry in demanding some relief. For on1yy in that, manner will there be any relief' frorn a levy which is largely unfair and uuijust'.