Cigarette Taxes by State, 2026

Cigarettes are one of the most heavily taxed products in the United States. Smokers may not be aware of just how much they pay in taxes to take a drag.

Whether attempting to correct for the externalities of second-hand smoke, seeking to discourage "sinful" behavior policymakers deem undesirable, or simply desperate for revenue wherever they can get it, every state taxes cigarettes.

The highest state tax A tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. on cigarettes is levied by New York at $5.35 per pack of 20. The next highest tax jurisdiction is the District of Columbia at $5.07 per pack of cigarettes, followed closely by Maryland at $5.00 per pack, Rhode Island at $4.50 per pack, and Connecticut at $4.35 per pack.

Consumers face the lowest tax burden in Missouri, where the tax is $0.17 per pack of 20 cigarettes. The next lowest taxes are levied by Georgia at $0.37 per pack, North Dakota at $0.44 per pack, and North Carolina at $0.45 per pack of 20.

How High are Cigarette Taxes in Your State?

State Excise Taxes on Cigarettes in Dollars per Pack of 20, July 2026

Recent Notable Changes

• Indiana tripled its cigarette tax from $0.995 to $2.995 per pack of 20 effective July 1, 2025, propelling the state passed half the country from the 39^th to the 13^th highest tax.
• Maine increased its cigarette tax from $2.00 to $3.50 per pack of 20 effective January 5, 2026, which brought the state from 22^nd highest to the 8^th highest tax in the country.
• Hawaii increased its cigarette tax from $3.20 to $3.60 per pack of 20 effective January 1, 2026, moving the state from the 10^th to the 6^th highest tax nationwide.
• New Jersey increased its cigarette tax from $2.70 to $3.00 per pack of 20 effective August 1, 2025, and is now the 12^th highest taxing state.
• Rhode Island increased its cigarette tax from $4.25 to $4.50 per pack of 20 effective September 1, 2024, now the 3^rd highest in the nation.
• Minnesota automatically updates the portion of its cigarette tax derived from the specific sales taxA sales tax is levied on retail sales of goods and services and, ideally, should apply to all final consumption with few exemptions. Many governments exempt goods like groceries; base broadening, such as including groceries, could keep rates lower. A sales tax should exempt business-to-business transactions which, when taxed, cause tax pyramiding. on cigarettes every January 1. As of 2026, Minnesota increased its cigarette tax from $3.826 to $3.88 per pack of 20.
• The District of Columbia also automatically updates its cigarette surtaxA surtax is an additional tax levied on top of an already existing business or individual tax and can have a flat or progressive rate structure. Surtaxes are typically enacted to fund a specific program or initiative, whereas revenue from broader-based taxes, like the individual income tax, typically cover a multitude of programs and services. every October 1. As of 2025, it increased the cigarette tax from $5.03 to $5.07 per pack of 20.
• Utah increased its cigarette tax from $1.70 to $2.20 per pack of 20 effective July 1, 2026.

Cigarettes in every state bear an additional burden from the federal excise tax. Every pack of 20 cigarettes is taxed an additional $1.01 from this federal tax.

The revenues generated by excise taxes tend to be more prone to fluctuation than other taxes because they have particularly narrow tax bases. Historically, cigarette tax revenues in every state have been notably volatile.

Smoking rates have been continually falling in the United States for decades, leading to fewer packs of cigarettes being purchased and thus less tax revenue generated. While this should be heralded as a crowning achievement for public health, when states become fiscally attached to revenue from cigarette taxes, fewer cigarette purchases suddenly become a problem for public budgets.

To combat the declining revenues from less smoking, many states have increased tax rates. This tends to spike revenues in the short term but only accelerates the revenue decline in the long term as consumers are successfully discouraged from smoking or are pushed to lower tax jurisdictions or illicit markets.

State governments often find themselves with ever-decreasing revenues even as they try to chase revenue with tax hikes. This is especially true after accounting for the loss of real value of the tax revenues with the debasement of the currency.

This volatile and generally declining revenue makes excise taxes on cigarettes a poor option for policymakers seeking to raise reliable revenues to fund general government services.

Cigarette taxes are also highly regressive. Consumption taxes, including excise taxes, are almost always regressive because savings increases with income, meaning shoppers spend a shrinking percent of their disposable income on consumption as their income grows. Just because a tax is regressive does not mean it should be excluded from consideration in a broader tax system, though policymakers may wish to consider the mix of regressive and progressive taxes in the overall system. Cigarette taxes, however, are one of the most regressive taxes ever quantified, placing a drastically disproportionate burden on those with lower incomes.

To demonstrate this disparity, the figure below shows the distribution of income and the burden of federal excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol in 2023.

The top 10 percent of income earners are estimated to have paid 32.2 percent of federal alcohol taxes but only 18.9 percent of tobacco taxes. For comparison, in 2023 the top 10 percent of income earners paid 70 percent of federal income taxes according to Tax Foundation analysis.

Excise taxes on cigarettes are especially regressive at the state level as well. The state with the most regressive cigarette tax is New York, where the effective tax rate on the lowest income quintile is 22.2 times the effective tax rate on the highest income quintile. Conversely, Utah has the least regressive cigarette tax, as there the effective tax rate on the lowest income quintile is "only" 11.2 times higher than the effective tax rate on the highest income quintile.

For some international context, the EU's minimum cigarette excise tax< /a>An excise tax is a tax imposed on a specific good or activity. Excise taxes are commonly levied on cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, soda, gasoline, insurance premiums, amusement activities, and betting, and typically make up a relatively small and volatile portion of state and local and, to a lesser extent, federal tax collections. of $2.11 per pack of 20 cigarettes would be the 19^th highest rate among states, but the highest state rate of $5.35 per pack in New York would rank 7^thamong EU countries.

The latest Orzechowski and Walker data show that, on average, excise taxes accounted for approximately 31.1 percent of the final retail price of cigarettes in 2025. This ranged from a low of 14.7 percent in Missouri to a high of 44.8 percent in Maryland. This does not include any additional sales taxes, business taxes, or local taxes.

The significant differentials in tax rates across states incentivize smuggling and cross-border trade between jurisdictions. More than 1.5 billion packs of cigarettes are smuggled annually in the United States.

When a short drive across a state border can save consumers $4.40 per pack-like driving from Maryland to Virginia -many smokers will reasonably decide to shop across borders. Policymakers should be mindful of keeping rates low enough to avoid pushing consumers to other jurisdictions or, worse, to the illicit market.

Illicit activity avoids taxes and regulations altogether. The illicit market for cigarettes remains thriving despite enforcement efforts. Black markets benefit most when policymakers enact prohibitive policies like flavor bans, which give illicit actors a monopoly. Legal markets suffer when burdensome tax policy grants competitive advantages to illicit products, undermining both public health and the revenues of legitimate business and state taxes.

The notorious unreliability of cigarette tax revenues and severe regressivity of excise taxes on cigarettes make these taxes particularly ill-suited for raising general funds. Policymakers should reserve excise taxes for funding related programs and look to more broad-based taxes for funding general spending in a reliable and principled way.