Ohio Should Wean Off Cigarette Tax Revenue and Pursue Healthier Fiscal Policy
Instead of doubling down on a shrinking tax base, Ohio lawmakers should instead look towards tax solutions that secure the state’s long-term fiscal health.
4 min read
Expert
Adam Hoffer
Director of Excise Tax Policy
Adam Hoffer is the Director of Excise Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation. Dr. Hoffer earned his PhD in Economics from West Virginia University and his undergraduate degree from Washington & Jefferson College.
Prior to joining the Tax Foundation, Dr. Hoffer was the Menard Family Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and the inaugural Director of the Menard Family Midwest Center for Economic Engagement and Research. Dr. Hoffer was also a Bradley Freedom Fellow with the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and a senior editor with the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University.
Dr. Hoffer published 30 peer-reviewed academic journal articles and he is the lead author and editor of two books: For Your Own Good: Taxes, Paternalism, and Fiscal Discrimination in the Twenty-First Century and Regulation and Economic Opportunity: Blueprints for Reform.
He lives in La Crosse, Wisconsin with his wife and two children.
Latest Work
Exorbitant Sports Betting Taxes Could Kill the Legal Market
The unique complexities of tax design for sports betting excise taxes make optimal tax design particularly challenging. Any reforms to the federal sports betting tax should ensure that both bettors and operators find legal markets more attractive than illicit markets.
6 min read
Tax Treatment of Hemp and Other Intoxicants
Hemp, intoxicating or otherwise, is a growing market that needs to be addressed with tax policy. A well-designed tax will generate tax revenues for states while improving public health by shifting consumers away from illicit markets.
5 min read
Opportunities to Reform the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products
New leadership at the FDA will have the opportunity to revisit decisions that have shifted consumption to illicit products and discouraged harm reduction—policies that, however well intended, have come at a significant cost in lives.
7 min read
A Carbon Tax on Cigarettes in Washington State?
Among the many other tax proposals being considered in Washington this year, policymakers have proposed separate bills that would impose a carbon tax on cigarettes and implement a state-wide flavor ban on tobacco products.
3 min read
Soda Taxes Won’t Fix Global Health
The empirical evidence thus far on sugar-sweetened beverage taxes fails to support claims that these taxes will create substantial health benefits. At the same time, their structural limitations make them ill-suited for generating stable, equitable revenue.
54 min read
The Future of EU Tobacco Taxation: Insights from Member States and Best Practices for the Next Tobacco Excise Tax Directive
An update to the EU’s Excise Tax Directive that embraces harm reduction principles would save lives and provide a steady stream of revenue to support public health expenditures.
22 min read
EVs and the Highway Trust Fund: Five Things to Know
While fixing infrastructure funding has not been a focus of the tax expiration debate, it would be a smart way to pay for at least a small portion of the expiring tax cuts. In recent years, highway funding has exceeded highway revenues, and the introduction of electric vehicles has made the gas tax increasingly obsolete.
7 min read
The High Stakes of Sports Betting Taxes
In this episode, Adam Hoffer, Director of Excise Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation, joins Kyle Hulehan to unpack the intricacies of sports betting tax policy during one of the biggest betting events of the year—Super Bowl 59.
Mexico Proposes Best-Designed Alcohol Tax System in the World
The proposed ad quantum tax would be the system that most closely follows the global best practices for alcohol taxes we previously outlined.
4 min read
FDA’s Proposed Cigarette Prohibition Would Cost $33 Billion in Annual Tax Revenue
The US already has massive problems with cigarette smuggling. A cigarette prohibition would be devastating to tax coffers while pushing smokers toward what could become the world’s largest illicit market.
4 min read
Cigarette Smuggling Cost States Nearly $5 Billion in Forgone Excise Tax Revenue Each Year
Tax avoidance is a natural consequence of tax policy. Policymakers should consider the unintended consequences, both to public health and public coffers, of the excise taxes and regulatory regimes for cigarettes and other nicotine products.
5 min read
Bets on Legal Sports Markets Pay Off Big for States, Sportsbooks, and Consumers
Consumers legally wagered more than $100 billion on sporting contests in 2023, creating more than $1.8 billion in state revenue. Sports betting is now legal in 38 states and DC, and the landscape is rapidly evolving.
18 min read
Cigarette Taxes and Cigarette Smuggling by State, 2022
Growing cigarette tax levels and differentials have made cigarette smuggling both a national problem and a lucrative criminal enterprise.
16 min read
Momentum Slows for State Drug Legalization Policies via 2024 State Ballot Initiatives
With the significant potential for state revenues, and the prior political success of arguments that legalization can shift consumers to safer legal markets, it seems likely that states will continue to see legislation and ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana at the state level—even states that failed to do so this election.
5 min read
Premium Cigar Taxes by State, 2024
Over 500 million premium cigars were sold in the United States in 2023. With each sale comes a complex tax landscape.
4 min read
Brazil Proposes Major Overhaul of Its Alcohol Tax System
The Brazilian government is poised to make the biggest change to its alcohol tax policy in recent history.
6 min read
Taxpayers Shoulder a Heavy Burden for Sports Stadium Subsidies
Sports stadium subsidies are salient political gimmicks designed to appear as if politicians are providing tangible benefits to taxpayers. The empirical evidence shows repeatedly that stadium subsidies fail to generate new tax revenue and new jobs or attract new businesses.
6 min read
What Are the Tax Consequences of Rescheduling Marijuana?
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that it would move to reschedule marijuana. This move doesn’t do as much for legal cannabis sales as proposed federal legislation like the States 2.0 Act, but rescheduling cannabis has major ramifications for cannabis businesses.
4 min read
Extended Producer Responsibility
Growing levels of waste and pollution, paired with increasing burdens on taxpayers to address environmental problems, have spurned policymakers in the US and abroad to encourage producers to be responsible, either financially or operationally, for the end-life of their products.
34 min read