Tax on vape liquid 'likely' to be introduced by end of year
In last year's budget speech, then finance minister Jack Chambers said 'a typical disposable vape contains 2ml of e-liquid, and costs in the region of €8. This new tax will bring the price of such a product to €9.23 including Vat'.
The delayed tax on vape liquid is “likely” to be introduced by the end of the year, with work to implement it “well advanced”.
In Budget 2025, the Government committed to introducing a tax by the middle of this year but it has yet to be introduced.
Then finance minister Jack Chambers said a tax of 50c per millilitre would be applied to all e-liquids.
In his budget speech, Mr Chambers said “a typical disposable vape contains 2ml of e-liquid, and costs in the region of €8. This new tax will bring the price of such a product to €9.23 including Vat".
“Due to the operational and administrative challenges associated with this measure, it will not commence until the middle of next year.”
A spokeswoman for finance minister Paschal Donohoe confirmed to the work on introducing the tax was now at an advanced stage.
“Preparations for the development of secure and functional IT systems, registration processes, compliance checks and operational supports to ensure the tax is collected efficiently and fairly are well advanced and remain on course for E-Liquid Products Tax to come into effect in the coming period,” she said.
“Revenue is meeting representative groups later this month to provide guidance on the new tax and how it will operate.
She said before the tax begins, Revenue will also give suppliers information about registering for the E-Liquid Products Tax.
It is “likely” the tax will be in place before the end of the year.
In the Dáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Budget 2026 would contain “targeted” measures.
“There are mechanisms we can do, which we did in the past, to try to protect those who need protection most, on energy costs and food pricing costs,” he said.
“The key is that we want to do this in a mainstream way. It is not economically sustainable as we come out of this high inflation period over the last two to three years after covid that we would continue doing large standalone cost-of-living packages.”
