Ulrik was Director of Excise Tax Policy with the Center for State Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation. His focus was on excise taxation and supporting the team developing principled positions on various excise taxes ranging from gasoline to tobacco.
Prior to joining the Tax Foundation, Ulrik worked in tobacco, finance, and public relations. He has a master’s degree in business administration from Copenhagen Business School and has always been interested in public policy—he has been involved in local politics since high school.
Ulrik was born and raised in Copenhagen, but now resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife and infant daughter. In his spare time he enjoys playing and watching soccer, as well as traveling.
Lawmakers in Colorado, and in the several other states considering flavor bans, should think twice before following in the footsteps of Massachusetts. A statewide ban on flavored tobacco products is more than likely to costs millions of dollars, increase smuggling, and have a negligible effect on public health.
5 min read
The FDA’s expected announcement of a national ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes and cigars with a characterizing flavor would carry significant revenue implications for both the federal government and state governments, with likely limited benefits in smoking cessation.
6 min read
A group of lawmakers in Ohio have proposed to repeal the state’s gross receipt tax (GRT), also known as the commercial activity tax (CAT).
5 min read
Since 2018, 30 states and the District and Columbia have legalized and imposed taxes on sports betting. States that have yet to legalize, but which may do so, should pay attention to the impact of tax design in states that already have legal and taxed sports betting—specifically tax base design.
8 min read
A recent JAMA Internal Medicine study on the impact of the Massachusetts flavored tobacco ban indicates that it has been a success. Unfortunately, it left out a very important piece of information: cross-border trade.
4 min read
More than 300 billion cigarettes are sold each year in Indonesia—making it the world’s second-largest cigarette market to China. As such, it is important how Indonesia taxes tobacco products.
4 min read
Maine’s proposal to increase tobacco and vapor taxes has at least four major issues: flawed revenue allocation, risk of increased smuggling, regressivity, and violation of the harm reduction principle.
4 min read
Lawmakers in Washington need not revisit their vapor tax. The current tax is levied at an appropriate level and it has the right tax base.
3 min read
A proposal to introduce a wholesale tax on vapor products in Alaska could make switching from combustible tobacco products very expensive for smokers.
4 min read
Coming out of the pandemic, the state of Ohio is estimating significant tax revenue growth, and some lawmakers are looking to take advantage and repeal the Commercial Activity Tax (CAT), one of only a few gross receipts taxes still levied in the country.
7 min read
Rep. Mace (R-SC)’s States Reform Act would deschedule, regulate, and tax cannabis products with a novel federal excise tax design—based on quantities and predefined categories, not dissimilar from how the federal government taxes alcohol and tobacco.
7 min read
Indonesia, the world’s second-largest cigarette market, has a uniquely complex system when it comes to taxing its tobacco consumption, which is almost exclusively cigarettes (98 percent).
4 min read
While it is not within the purview of the Comptroller’s office to reject a legislatively-approved tax no matter how poor—or constitutionally infirm—the underlying policy, the regulations fairly to fully resolve several important issues raised by the bill, while potentially creating additional legal infirmities in the regulation’s approach to apportionment.
10 min read
The nicotine tax proposal in the Build Back Better Act neglects sound excise tax policy design and by doing so risks harming public health. Lawmakers should reconsider this approach to nicotine taxation.
8 min read
Through 10 ballot measures across four states—Colorado, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington—voters will decide significant questions of state tax policy.
7 min read
Taxes and fees on the typical American wireless consumer increased again this year, to a record 24.96 percent.
32 min read
In an effort to raise roughly $100 billion, the House proposal would double cigarette taxes and increase all other tobacco and nicotine taxes to comparable rates—a strategy with severe unintended consequences.
5 min read
One of the Senate’s proposals to pay for the Build Back Better Act is a federal excise tax on virgin plastics, which are plastics that are not reprocessed or recovered.
4 min read