{"id":625378,"date":"2026-08-07T13:13:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/625378\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T13:13:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:13:23","slug":"vape-tax-increase-being-considered-after-it-raises-e22m-in-nine-months-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/625378\/","title":{"rendered":"Vape tax increase being considered after it raises \u20ac22m in nine months \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An increase to the tax on vapes<\/a> is being considered by Minister for Finance Simon Harris<\/a>, with more than \u20ac22 million having been collected since it was introduced late last year.<\/p>\n

The e-liquid products tax (EPT) became law in the 2024 Finance Act and came into effect on November 1st last. <\/p>\n

The tax is set at \u20ac500 a litre, which works out at \u20ac1 for a 2ml vape<\/a>. An increase is likely to be announced in Budget 2027<\/a>, which is to be delivered on October 6th.<\/p>\n

The Revenue Commissioners impose the tax on those who first supply e-liquid products in the State, mainly importers and manufacturers, in what is called the \u201cfirst supply model\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is deemed the most efficient way to apply the tax given the large number of vape retailers. Some retailers who are wholesale importers also pay the tax.<\/p>\n

Vapes are electronic devices that heat a liquid rather than burn tobacco. The liquid contains nicotine and flavourings to produce an inhalable aerosol used as an alternative to tobacco.<\/p>\n

The D\u00e1il and Seanad passed a law before the summer recess to clamp down on the industry and tackle the popularity of vapes among younger generations.<\/p>\n

The Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Act, which was signed into law by President Catherine Connolly, will ban the sale of disposable single-use vapes. <\/p>\n

Health correspondent at The Irish Times, Shauna Bowers, explains the Government’s plan to ban single-use vapes and nicotine pouches. Video: Ronan McGreevy <\/p>\n

The Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) (Amendment) Bill, before the Seanad, will introduce a prohibition on flavoured vapes and restrict the packaging of vaping products from featuring colours and imagery.<\/p>\n

A source close to Harris said he would give \u201cserious consideration to any measures that help combat smoking or vaping\u201d. <\/p>\n

In a parliamentary reply to Sinn F\u00e9in TD Ann Graves, Harris said the tax is collected on a self-assessment basis and the \u201cprovisional yield\u201d since its introduction last November had been more than \u20ac22 million.<\/p>\n

Graves, a Dublin Fingal East TD, raised concerns about \u201cnon-compliant operators selling vaping products, including non-traditional retail outlets, such as phone shops, whose primary activity is not the sale of vaping products\u201d. <\/p>\n

She also asked about the impact on compliant sellers of vapes and the number of Revenue officials \u201cassigned to compliance and enforcement activities relating to the e-liquid products tax\u201d. <\/p>\n

Graves\u2019s questions followed concerns raised in June by the director general of the European Anti-Fraud Office, Petr Klement, who said Europe is being \u201cflooded\u201d by cheap vapes and e-cigarettes that often do not meet EU safety rules, dodge customs taxes and, in some cases, contain harmful and illegal substances.<\/p>\n

A recent cross-Border investigation by the office, in co-operation with national authorities, seized 94 million vape products as part of a crackdown on the booming market.<\/p>\n

The inquiry found fraudsters had used a range of schemes to misdeclare the goods when transporting or shipping them into the EU market and across internal borders, to avoid paying the correct rate of tax.<\/p>\n

Harris said Revenue \u201cselects cases for compliance intervention based on risk\u201d. They \u201cfocus resources where they have greatest impact and to minimise the burden on compliant taxpayers\u201d. <\/p>\n

Some 2,000 of Revenue\u2019s staff are engaged in activities \u201cfocused on targeting and confronting noncompliance across all taxes and duties\u201d in co-operation with other State agencies. <\/p>\n

The Minister told Graves \u201cit is not possible to disaggregate staffing resources deployed exclusively to EPT compliance<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n

Early last month, garda\u00ed arrested two men and seized cannabis vapes and cannabis edibles, or gummies, valued at about \u20ac2 million.<\/p>\n

Searches were carried out after garda\u00ed became aware of retail premises, including vaping shops, selling illegal cannabis products.<\/p>\n

The raids on five business premises and two houses in Castlebar, Longford, Drogheda and Carlow resulted in the seizure of \u201csubstantial quantities of cannabis-infused jellies, cannabis oil-infused vapes and \u2018reefer\u2019 cigarettes containing HHC and THC\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An increase to the tax on vapes is being considered by Minister for Finance Simon Harris, with more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,553,19,17,1900,44,84031,70755],"class_list":["post-625378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-fine-gael","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-revenue-commissioners","tag-simon-harris","tag-vaping","tag-your-stories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117054407335453656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}