I'm not even joking here, I just got back from Australia and a single pack of cigarettes was $65 AUS. I'm guessing it was about $40 USD. I'm not sure how much a carton would cost, but some people would definitely need to finance that.
Wow!
My first thought was the black market must be booming. They are now looking at reducing the tax because half of the tobacco smoked is untaxed on the black market.
Despite the significant tax increases, the tax revenue has collapsed from a peak of $16 billion in 2019/20 to $9.8 billion in 2023/24 — a fall of 39 per cent in four years.
Australia has crossed Hauser's Law or the Laffer Curve. This simply means, people are unwilling to pay the added tax, so they either stop the activity or seek other means.
This applies to income tax rates as well.
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