The Tax Foundation reports that revenue from the federal tobacco tax is declining.
The same can be said of New Mexico’s levy on coffin nails. Here, in millions of dollars, are the sums the tax generated recently, and are predicted to yield in the future:
2011: 88.2
2012: 85.4
2013: 86.1
2014 (unaudited): 78.5
2015 (estimated): 79.0
2016 (estimated): 78.1
With a cigarette tax higher than the national average, and above the rates of Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado, it’s likely that evasion is a major contributor to New Mexico’s declining revenue. According to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the Land of Enchantment is a top “inbound smuggling state” — 46.1 percent of the smokes consumed here are contraband.
Dodging taxes is becoming an accepted behavior. I will not tell on you. 50% pay none anyway. They cannot have socialism without our taxes. Withhold all you can.
Taxes are theft of private property, pure and simple. Any opportunity to deny The State its use of force to steal from us is moral and proper.
Soon the state of NM will learn the same lesson as every other business.
The sky is not the limit on pricing, even for taxes.
More than contraband, I think they’re feeling the effects of new technologies. or. E-cigs as an alternative to paying exorbitant State and Federal taxes.