Cheap cigarettes line
Cheap cigarettes
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State and federal legislation and enforcement will
probably be needed to ensure that appropriate excise taxes are paid
on cigarettes, that gray market cigarettes are not sold online, and
that youth cheap cigarettes online access to tobacco
products is restricted,'' he added.
In a commentary on the research, Canadian scientists said international
tobacco control agreements and cheap cigarettes online
national and state regulation may be needed to meet the threat the Internet
posed for tobacco control. If deliberate and concerted action is not
taken, tobacco commerce on the Internet could prove
to be a significant threat to comprehensive tobacco control,'' said
Joanna Cohen of the University of Toronto. ludicrously low cigarette
tax is not only hurting Kentuckians by keeping it alluringly
cheap to smoke and depriving the state of badly needed revenue. It is
also cheap cigarettes online hurting other, more responsible states
by turning Kentucky into a haven for Internet cigarette sales. As taxes
and prices have gone up almost everywhere else, Internet operations
have grown here as ways for buyers to avoid higher taxes in their home
states and, worse, for youths to avoid their states' laws against sales
to minors.

For now, of course, Kentucky is getting a little extra
income from these Internet sales, since the suppliers do pay the state's
measly tax of 3 cents per pack.
But that return is coming at a high cost. For one thing, it places Kentucky
on the wrong side of the national debate over Internet taxation. States
generally agree that Internet transactions shouldn't escape normal state
taxes, since that puts local, non-Internet businesses at an unfair disadvantage
and since it also allows Internet customers to avoid paying for the
government services they enjoy.
For another, the rise of cheap cigarettes online Internet
cigarette sellers means Kentucky is now home to businesses that are
legally suspect; they seem to be ignoring the minimal age-verification
and reporting requirements already on the books.

It's not illegal to buy or sell cigarettes over the Internet, but sellers
and buyers appear to be obliged to report their purchases and to pay
any state taxes owed under the 1949 Jenkins Act. It expressly requires
dealers to report out-of-state sales to the buyers' state tobacco tax
administrators.