State Senate Wants To Tax 'Blunt Wraps'
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - After an administrative law judge ruled against the state in February, a Senate panel is moving to make a clear type of rolling paper known as a "blunt wrap" subject to tobacco taxes.
Blunt wraps can be used as cigar wrappers, and tobacco is a raw material used in manufacturing the wraps.
Judge John Van Laningham in February ruled against the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation in a dispute about whether distributor Brandy's Products, Inc., should be required to pay tobacco taxes on the wraps.
But Van Laningham found that the blunt wraps don't fall under the definition of tobacco products that should be taxed, writing, in part, that a "blunt wrap is no more loose tobacco than a piece of writing paper is loose wood."
On Tuesday, however, the Senate Finance and Tax Committee unanimously approved a bill (SPB 7074) that deals with tobacco-tax issues, including adding wraps to the legal definition of tobacco products.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.