The Vape Tax - And how we can save you money!
On the 1st of October 2026 a new duty on vape juice will come into effect. This duty is a flat £2.20 on each 10ml of e-liquid on top of the already existing VAT of 20%. It will effect anything and everything with vape juice - from disposables, nicotine salts, shortfills and even CBD e-liquid. It does not matter of the e-liquid contains nicotine or not, it all gets taxed.
To put things into perspective, a £3.99 nicotine salt will increase in price to £6.19. Ten nicotine salts (a box) usually sold at £25 will become £47. Shortfills (big bottles we add nicotine to, that contain zero nicotine by default) will go from, on average, £9.99 to £18.79 for 50mls, or £15.99 to £33.59. This excludes the one or two nicotine shots which will still be counted in the tax, boosting the price by £2.20 to £4.40!
These are dire times, we can't lie. The government literally say on their website that they are trying to make vaping less affordable. They claim to do this to reduce youth vaping and stop people smoking but, for a myriad of reasons, we believe it will never work. It will create black markets of vape juice made cheap, sold cheap, or imported and sold to avoid the duty - which will introduce juices with chemicals banned in the UK which will, in turn, cause so many health complications. That or people go back to smoking cigarettes!
How we can help you (legally) avoid the tax.
After the vape tax is introduced any new juice we buy will be taxed. There's no doubts about that. But every bottle we buy before October 1st can be sold without the tax until April 2027. That means if you have a reserve of stock we keep in the store for you we can keep selling it to you until April or until you run out of stock.
How it works:
- You find a flavour you like, nicotine salts, shortfills, CBD e-liquid, disposable pods, you name it.
- You come into the shop and put a £5 deposit on as many of those bottles / boxes you like (£5 per box or bottle) but don't have to buy a box we don't have then and there (unless you want to!).
- We order in those boxes before October 1st and store them in the shop.
- After October 1st we sell you the boxes for the old price (plus your £5 deposit taken off!) which means you keep paying the old price.
- You can keep buying your pre-tax juice until you run out. If you do run out then you'll go back to paying the new price with the tax.
For example, you like Fresh Mint & Banana Ice Bar Juice. You put a £30 deposit on 6 boxes because you go through 10 bottles of juice a month. We order you in 3 boxes of banana and 3 boxes of fresh mint, which we save for you in the back. Depending on your mood you come in after October 1st and pay only £20 for a box (As you get your deposit back) whilst everyone else is paying £47 for a box. With one box a month you save £162 in tax until in April 1st.
There are some caveats;
- We cannot exchange stock after the 1st of October if you change your mind. If you want a different flavour or strength at a cheap rate we will have to pay the tax on new stock and therefore the price will go up to the new normal.
- From the 1st of April you will have to pay the tax regardless of when we bought it.
- We can only sell you the stock you've paid the deposit on. If you run out of boxes and we have to order more or pick it from the shelf which will cost you the full VAT + Duty.
From the 1st of April you will be forced to pay the tax on all e-liquid regardless on whether it was bought before October or not.