This weeks Vaping News....From the Alchemist Cupboard
Strap yourselves in, this is going to be a long one...
You may have seen the headlines this week, after the chancellor of the exchequer delivered his budget and announced that there would be an introduction of a NEW VAPE TAX from 2026.
Now before we get into the details which weren't announced in parliament, this was announced around 50 minutes into the budget. Yet, it became headline news in both Radio and Tabloid bulletins.
So what does the framework look like?
The planned introduction for the New Vape Tax is in October 2026. There will be three rates, depending on the level of Nicotine within the juice.
Non-Nicotine - £1 per 10ml of Liquid
0.01 - 10.9 mg/ml - £2 per 10ml of Liquid
11 - 20 mg/ml - £3 per 10ml of Liquid.
As you can see, they've taxed non-nicotine containing products, so lets break this down for you. As even DIY will be affected by this.
Shortfill E-Liquid 60ml @ 3mg :
5 x £1 (non-nicotine tax) + 1 x £3 (20mg nicotine tax)
= £8 in tax/duty.
Longfill E-Liquid 60ml @ 12mg
2 x £1 (non-nicotine tax) + 4 x £3 (20mg nicotine tax
= £14 in tax/duty.
250ml DIY Bottle Shot at 3mg :
4 x £3 (20mg Nicotine tax) = £12 in tax/duty
This will come in addition to your current costs!
DIY bottle shots are currently targeted towards Vape, luckily at this stage, the clowns making these rules have literally no idea that DIY is a thing, or even possible.
So the PG/VG and (FOOD) flavourings would not be taxed, neither can we see a way where they can!
So why are we faced with a new tax?
Well the main reason is there are now an estimated 5 Million vapers in the UK, lets just remember if they were smoking 20 cig's a day and not vaping, the duty raised on that would be in excess of £30 million A DAY!!!!
At the standard 20% Tax, sales of Vape products last year were £1.3 billion, generating £260 Million in tax last year, less than a £1 million a day!
They say its down to the rise in youth vaping....
Do not let them fool you, it is 100% about the money!
Vaping is 95% safer for you than Vaping, ALL other NRT's on the market are subject to a lower 5% tax as these are deemed relief to the NHS.
Yet they classify us as a Novelty food item!
So what Next...
There are going to have to be, some big changes, where we are going to need to look at how we target DIY products, as essentially these are FOOD FLAVOURINGS, so it may be that we have to target more towards this going forward and drop references towards vape for any DIY product.
Which would mean bundles, where you get your nicotine shots with your flavouring, would be a thing of the past, it would be deemed a conflict and suggest these products are designed for vaping, something we need to try to avoid going forward.
The industry have been asking for a licensing scheme for years, which would put a stop to any sales outside a specialised and licensed vape shop!
While i don't disagree there is a youth vaping problem, this comes from the convenience sector, of which they are also responsible for the illegal disposable vapes.
Cut them off and introduce specialised licensing and much like the first 10 years of vaping, you would find little to no problem.
Worst Case Scenario
What we could see develop post 2026 is a huge black market, which could kill 99% of vape company's in the UK by 2030.
Let me explain, Jimmy down the social club can offer you 100ml for £20, Katrina from work can offer you 100ml for £18, but someone on Facebook called Tim can do it for £15, or you can pay £30+ from your local vape shop.
What will the happen is, Tim, who has no clue as to what are safe ingredients within a vape juice and got his hands on some dodgy Nicotine, makes some vape juice and sells it for £15, 10 people end up in hospital.
This will happen time and time again, as a result we will end up with Big-Tobacco running the vape industry, because if anything, they know how to kill people properly!
Think I'm being over dramatic, then look at some U.S states, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavia, to name just a few, that have seen similar or worse.
If you look at the new Vaping Product Duty Consultation (linked below) , all of their guidelines to usage are drawn from VUSE products, which are owned by.... yes you guessed it.... BAT (British American Tobacco).
It's not all bad....
With that all out of the way, DIY will be largely unaffected and we expect another 2016 type boom towards DIY, yes the tax still affects this but its workable by lowering your nicotine levels.
What is important now is coming round to the idea or mixing your own. If you already do so, educate and show your friends how to do so. Experiment in lowering your Nicotine levels, you've got 2 years to do so, as if you can get Nicotine Free by 2026, none of the taxes applies to you!
We will do whatever we can in any capacity to ensure we are still here to service you. Much like 2016 we had to change and adapt and 2026 will be no different, we have no plans on going anywhere!!
Please do not panic yet, just make sure your voice is heard. There is a new consultation out, which we will link at the end of this, there has never been a more important time to have your say. There are questions and suggestions towards restricting flavours, This doesn't affect DIY obviously as they can not restrict food flavourings in PG, just how we target them, but none of us started with DIY, we all bought E-liquid, 25% of our customers till do and we need to ensure that right remains!
