Hello my beautiful Canada Vapes customers – my name is Howie, and I’m the owner of Canada Vapes. Since starting Canada Vapes in August of 2010 I have had the joy of providing vaping products to Canadians, and hearing thousands of amazing testimonials from ex-smokers turned to vapers.
During my time in the vaping world, there have been many bumps, hurdles, and zigzags to navigate, and the new excise vaping tax is another one along this road. For you, my valued customers, I feel a responsibility to give you an understanding of what vaping excise tax is, and so I’ll do my best to break it down for you here.
BREAKDOWN OF VAPING EXCISE TAX IN CANADA:
In June of 2022, a vaping excise tax was approved by our Federal government. This tax goes into effect on October 1, 2022, and applies to any manufactured vaping products. This tax will be added to all vaping products containing e-liquid, including pods, disposables, and all e-liquid bottles for sale across Canada. As described by the Federal government: “The excise duty applies to vaping substances that are manufactured in Canada or imported and that are intended for use in a vaping device in Canada”
The excise tax applies as follows:
| Bottle Size | Original Price | New Required Tax | New Price at Checkout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 x 2ml Pods | $14.99 | $3 | $17.99 |
| 30ml | $16.99 | $7 | $23.99 |
| 60ml | $29.99 | $10 | $39.99 |
| 120ml | $49.99 | $16 | $65.99 |
EXCISE TAX TIMELINE
No e-liquid or vaping products containing e-liquid may be manufactured after October 1st, 2022 in Canada without an excise stamp. Any e-liquid that has been manufactured before October 1st may be sold without the excise stamps until December 31st, 2022. As of January 1st, 2023, it will be illegal to sell any vaping products containing e-liquid without the excise stamps.
TRANSITION PERIOD: (Oct 2022 – Dec 2022)
Over the past month, our amazing staff has been working extra hard to over-produce many of our popular e-liquids. This will increase the time for us to continue to offer our amazing e-liquids at pre-tax prices. As we move through October and November, our supply will reduce, and we will begin to transition our e-liquids to the new pricing.
This means that between October 1st and December 31st, 2022, you will start to see prices change on our website as we begin to transition to include this new excise tax. There may be some products still at the pre-tax price, while others transition to the new post-tax price.
OUR PRICING REMAINS UNCHANGED:
Even with the extra work and cost of ordering, shipping, protecting, inventorying, and applying these vape excise stamps, Canada Vapes is committed to keeping our product prices as they were before the tax. 100% of the increase in the pricing of our products is the new vaping tax. We are not increasing our prices to account for our additional production and manufacturing costs.
STAMP INFORMATION:
The stamps in question are identical to the tax stamps you currently see in Canada on alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana products. Here is an example of an excise stamp you will begin to see on our vaping products containing e-liquid.
WHY IS THIS GOOD FOR VAPING IN CANADA?
We all agree that paying more taxes, especially in this economy is a difficult pill to swallow. However, vaping has now been legitimized in the same space as alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco. Once the government starts getting their ‘pound of flesh’ (millions of dollars in additional tax revenue) they are much less likely to add any other restrictions (flavour bans, nicotine strength bans, etc.) because these restrictions would reduce the taxes they are receiving. While painful, the long term, this vaping excise tax should protect the vaping industry in the future from further government restrictions.
With steeper regulations across the vaping world, this will also lead to a better quality product within the vaping community. Smaller ‘homemade’ vaping manufacturers who do not adhere to top quality standards and e-liquid manufacturing processes will not be able to adhere to the restrictions, bringing the top quality companies and vaping products to the surface.
IS VAPING STILL CHEAPER THAN SMOKING, EVEN AFTER THIS NEW TAX?
The short answer is – absolutely, and without question.
SMOKING: The cost of smoking in Canada for an average pack of cigarettes is $13.911. The price of cigarettes has gone up 9.5% over the past year alone2. Assuming a pack-a-day smoker, this translates to $423.38 per month, or $5,080.54 per year.
VAPING: Based on feedback from our customers, the average vapour uses approximately 5ml of e-liquid per day. At the e-liquid price of our 120ml bottles, this translates to a 120ml bottle of our e-liquid lasting our customers 24 days. This is a daily cost of $2.79, which is 80% cheaper than a pack of cigarettes.
Even if you factor in the purchase of a new vaping kit every 6 months (average price $50 or .27 cents/day) and a new pod or coil every month (average price $3.50 per month or .11cents/day), the daily cost to vape on average is $3.17, which is still 77% cheaper then smoking.
Over a year of vaping, you will save approximately $3,923.49.
HOW CAN I SAVE MONEY AND REDUCE MY TAXES?
BUY LARGER E-LIQUID BOTTLES:
To reduce the tax impact on your vaping products, I recommend you purchase larger bottle sizes of e-liquid. We have a large selection of 120ml bottles, and over the next 3 months, our primary focus is to increase our lineup of 120ml flavours available for purchase.
The way the vaping tax works is the first 10ml of e-liquid is taxed at the highest rate ($1 per 2ml) and then all e-liquid above 10ml is taxed at a lower rate ($1 per 10ml). Purchasing a 120ml bottle will reduce the tax by about 40% compared to purchasing a smaller 30ml bottle of e-liquid, and even more compared to pods and disposable vapes.
CONSIDER SWITCHING FROM PODS OR DISPOSABLES TO A LARGE VAPE:
We understand the ease of use of a disposable system or pod system. We hear you! Unfortunately, these systems will be taxed at the highest rates, and you will get more bang for your buck if you consider a larger vape style that holds more e-liquid. These systems are a bit more expensive to start, but they last a long time and allow you to use e-liquid in larger bottles and pay much less tax. Not only will this provide some tax relief, they are also much better for our environment, creating less waste.
CONSIDER NIC SALTS:
Canada Vapes Nic Salts are an alternative to traditional e-liquid. Customers tend to use less e-liquid per day when using nic salt e-liquid, as they receive a more substantial nicotine level per draw. This will reduce the number of ‘drags per day’ as you will receive more nicotine per draw. You can think of it kind of like an espresso versus a coffee. We have a good selection of vaping nic salt options and will be continuing to expand our nic salt lineup over the next year.
WHAT WE DON’T RECOMMEND:
Increasing your nicotine strength. – While this sounds like a good idea in theory, if you are accustomed to vaping a certain nicotine strength (for example, 6mg) and think that going to 12mg will help you vape less, this likely won’t be the case. Most people will simply ‘get used to’ the new nicotine strength within a few days, and will eventually start vaping just as much, at a higher nicotine strength.
EXPECT COUNTERFEITS AND ILLEGAL SALES:
Similar to tobacco and marijuana, and to a much lesser degree alcohol, without question this new vaping tax will open up a black market. These ‘home made’ e-liquid and vaping products will be illegal to sell and purchase, and will not have the quality guarantee that exists from a government registered vaping company. While it may be enticing to purchase vaping products at a lower price, the quality control of the products simply does not exist. This is something you are putting into your body, and our recommendation is after January 1st, 2023, to only purchase vaping products that have the excise stamp applied to guarantee quality and legality.
WHAT CANADA VAPES IS DOING:
We have already begun to work on several ways to reduce the impact of this vaping tax on our customers.
We are working to provide more e-liquid options in larger bottle sizes since the structure of the tax means larger bottles equals less tax. We are actively working on producing more of our amazing e-liquids in 120ml bottle sizes, reducing the tax by approximately 40% (vs buying 30ml bottles)
We will be upgrading our Nic Salt lineup to 60ml. As we begin to deplete our stock of nic salt e-liquids manufactured before October 1st. we will begin upgrading the Nic Salt e-liquids to 60ml bottles. Updating our nic salt e-liquid to 60ml will reduce the tax impact of our growing Nic Salt lineup by approximately 30%.
Continuing to provide sales and discounts to our customers. As always, we will continue to offer monthly vape promotions, giveaways, clearance deals, and specials. Keep your eye out for our promotions, and be sure to be on our mailing list, and connect with us on Facebook to Instagram to keep in the know when it comes to our awesome promotions.
If you have any questions about the new vape tax or anything else for that matter, our multiple-time award-winning customer service team is more than happy to answer them all! You can call us at 1-877-286-VAPE (M-F 9:30-4:30 EST), take advantage of our live chat, or email us anytime at support@canadavapes.com with any questions or concerns.
I'll end with this - Thank you thank you 1000 times thank you for all of your love and support shown to us over the years. Some of our customers have been with us since the beginning and adapted to many different changes and evolutions within the vaping world. We appreciate each and every one of our customers and realize every day that without you we would not be here.
Peace and Love,
Howie
Links to government resources regarding the vaping excise taxes:
https://budget.gc.ca/2022/report-rapport/tm-mf-en.html#a5_3
