Ohio Information
"It is now the second day of the no smoking ban in Toledo, and I still can't shake this ominous feeling and the only way that I can describe it is that its like a game of hang man where every letter missed a new part to the doomed man is added and thats how I view each law that infringes upon our rights, its like an added strand or another fiber to the noose around each of our necks that will someday strangle us all."
Amanda
Tobacco Taxes
Ohio's excise tax per pack of cigarettes: $0.550
Ohio's excise tax collection for the
fiscal year ending June 2002: $264,300,000
Sales tax on tobacco products: 5.00%
Local tax on tobacco products: $4,894,767
Federal excise tax per pack of cigarettes: $0.39
Total federal excise tax collections in fiscal year 2002: $7,512,700,000
| Who Profits from
Cigarette Sales? 
click for larger view |
Comparing Excise Taxes on Cigarettes, Beer and Wine
click for larger view | Number of six-packs of beer that must be sold in Ohio to produce the same state excise tax revenue generated by one carton of cigarettes: 54.3
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click for larger view | Number of bottles of wine that must be sold in Ohio to produce the same state excise tax revenue generated by one carton of cigarettes: 92.5
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Ohio Smokers' Contributions
to the State Economy - 2002
Ohio smokers comprise only 27.6%1 of the adult population in the state. Here is what they already pay because they choose to buy a legal product: | Smokers Pay State/Local Excise Taxes2 | $ | 269,365,869 | | Smokers Pay Sales Taxes2 | $ | 165,144,083 | | Smokers Pay Tobacco Settlement Payments3 | $ | 360,080,092 | | | $ | 794,590,044 |
Smokers' Economic/Tax Profile 2001
| Ohio smokers' median household income | $ | 37,429 | | Ohio nonsmokers' median household income | $ | 42,810 |
- Working Families Pay More1
31.2% of OH smokers had household income LESS than $25,000
11.2% of OH smokers had household income EQUAL to or GREATER THAN $75,000
The impact of smoker payments on the incomes of working families was more than THREE TIMES the impact on higher income smokers. Those who can afford it least pay a disproportionate percentage of their hard-earned income in smoker payments.
- Median Income Smoker Ohio State Tax Liability4
| Annual state tax liability (married filing jointly) | $ | 1,266 | | Annual state tax liability (married with two children filing jointly) | $ | 1,203 |
- Smoker Excise Tax/Sales Tax/Tobacco Settlement Payments Liability5
| Total average paid per Ohio smoker in excise and sales taxes | $ | 186 | | Cost per Ohio smoker for settlement payments to Ohio | $ | 154 | | Total annual payment to Ohio per smoker | $ | 340 | | Total annual payment to Ohio per nonsmoker | $ | 0 |
Ohio Smoker Facts 6 - Total smokers' payments to Ohio in FY2002 were:
- Nearly ten times larger than state excise taxes on alcoholic beverages in FY2001 ($81 million).
- Exceeded public utility taxes of $642 million in FY2001.
- Nearly five times as large as FY2001 death and gift taxes of $166 million.
- Total smokers' FY2002 payments would have supported FY2002 expenditures on:
- Environmental Protection and Natural Resources ($392.1 million) AND Youth Services ($234 million) COMBINED
OR - Aging ($312.2 million) AND Ohio University ($158.9 million) AND Ohio State University ($377.5 million) COMBINED.
- In 1997, smokers provided 15,575 jobs that paid an additional $30 million to the state in personal and corporate income taxes.7
| TOTAL SMOKER CIGARETTE PAYMENTS TO OHIO |
| | | Per year: | $ | 794,590,044 | | Per day: | $ | 2,175,469 | | Per hour: | $ | 90,645 | | Per minute: | $ | 1,511 | | Per second: | $ | 25 |
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CIGARETTES DON'T PAY TAXES -
OHIO SMOKERS DO!!
1 Centers for Disease Control's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2001
2 Orzechowski & Walker, Arlington, Virginia; from state revenue department
3 PriceWaterhouseCooper
4 State annual income tax liability from PayBreeze software of General Programming, Inc., San Jose, California, which utilizes the Exact Calculation Method.
5 U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 state population and Centers for Disease Control's Behavioral Risk Surveillance System, 2001
6 Tax and Budget Comparisons are from U.S. Census Bureau and State of Ohio Office of Management and Budget, Division of Stat Accounting, "Ohio Budgetary Accounting Report, for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2002. Online at http://www.state.oh.us/obm/businesscommunitypage/financial/BudgetFinancials.asp. The figures are unaudited.
7 American Economics Group, Inc., The U.S. Tobacco Industry in 1997: Its Economic Impact in the States.
Master Settlement Agreement Payments To Date
$1,192,487,776 has been paid to Ohio since the Master Settlement Agreement was signed on November 23, 1998.
A summary of Ohio state law is provided below
(for specific questions regarding state law, contact your legal advisor.)
| Minimum Age | Customers must be 18 years or older to purchase tobacco products. | | Restricted Products | Tobacco products, including but not limited to cigarettes (including clove and hand-rolled), cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and snuff, or cigarette rolling papers. It is illegal to manufacture, sell, or distribute any pack or other container of cigarettes containing fewer than twenty cigarettes or any package of roll-your-own tobacco containing less than six-tenths of one ounce of tobacco.
Selling cigarettes in a smaller quantity than that placed in the pack or other container by the manufacturer is prohibited.
| | Acceptable Forms of Identification | A driver's or commercial driver's license, military identification card, passport, or other identification card issued by the government that demonstrates a person is 18 years of age. A transaction scan device may be used to check the validity of a document that includes a bar code or magnetic strip. | | Fine/Penalty Schedule for Selling to Minors | Violators will be charged with a fourth degree misdemeanor and fined $250 and/or up to 30 days imprisonment for the first offense; and charged with a third degree misdemeanor and fined up to $500 and/or 60 days imprisonment for second and subsequent offenses. | | Affirmative Defense | The court may consider the fact that retailer has implemented a written policy intended to prevent sale to minors. | | Minor Possession | Using, consuming, possessing, accepting, receiving, purchasing or attempting to purchase, ordering, paying for or sharing the costs of cigarettes, other tobacco products or rolling papers by children is prohibited, except when accompanied by a parent, legal guardian or spouse who is 18 years of age or older. Knowingly furnishing false information regarding name, age or other identification for the purpose of obtaining cigarettes, other tobacco products or rolling papers is prohibited. Violators may be required by the court to attend a youth smoking education program and/or receive a fine of up to $100. Minors may accept or receive cigarettes, other tobacco products or rolling papers in the course of employment. Tobacco products or cigarette rolling papers that are used, possessed, purchased or received by a minor are subject to seizure and forfeitures as contraband. | Sign Requirement
 | Retailers are required to conspicuously post a sign that states that giving, selling, or otherwise distributing tobacco products to a person under 18 years of age is prohibited by law. | | Compliance Checks | As a condition of receiving federal substance abuse block grant funds, federal law requires the State of Ohio to conduct random, unannounced inspections of tobacco outlets to determine compliance rates. | | Electronic Age Verification | A seller may perform a transaction scan to check the validity of an ID as a condition for selling or distributing cigarettes or other tobacco products. If the information from the scan does not match the ID or indicates that the identification is false, the sale or distribution shall not be made. Violators may be fined up to $1,000 per violation. It is an affirmative defense that the transaction scan indicated that the identification card was valid, seller reasonably relied upon the scan and used due diligence to determine that purchaser was of legal age and using a valid identification card. A seller shall not electronically record any information derived from a transaction scan except the name, birth date, expiration date and identification number. Seller may not disseminate this information, except by court order. Violators may be fined up to $1,000 per violation.
| | DISCLAIMER: This information summary is provided as a service of the Coalition, but is not intended to provide legal advice or analysis. These summaries are not intended to be complete representations of state law, which may contain additional rules and restrictions relating to tobacco products not mentioned in this summary, as well as retailing prohibitions related to matters including, but not limited to, state required training, minimum pack size, the sale of loose cigarettes and other restrictions. Retailers should not rely on these summaries as complete or accurate descriptions of applicable federal, state or local law. Users with questions about the law should seek the advice of counsel. Each state law is unique and possibly represents multiple legislative or regulatory acts. Local laws may differ. Check with local authorities for variations from state law. These summaries are not intended to be complete representations of state law. |
The reprinting of this information from the Coalition, does not constitute a representation or admission by RJRT that such information is accurate, complete, or a proper characterization of the laws concerned. The Coalition for Responsible Tobacco Retailing is a cooperative effort among retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers who share a common goal: to do all they can to prevent tobacco sales to minors. |
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