How much is Connecticut's cigarette tax per pack?

Connecticut charges $4.35 in state excise tax on a standard 20-cigarette pack, which works out to $0.2175 per cigarette. This is one of the highest cigarette excise rates in the United States. The figure does not include the federal excise tax of about $1.01 per pack or the 6.35% state sales tax applied at checkout.

How does Connecticut tax beer, wine, and spirits?

Connecticut levies a per-gallon excise tax that distributors pay and pass into the shelf price: about $0.24 per gallon on beer, $0.79 per gallon on still wine, $1.98 per gallon on sparkling wine, and $5.94 per gallon on distilled spirits. The excise is tiny on a single can of beer but meaningful on a bottle of spirits.

Is sales tax charged on top of the excise tax?

Yes. Connecticut's 6.35% general sales tax applies to the full retail price of tobacco and alcohol, which already includes the embedded excise tax. That means you effectively pay sales tax on the excise tax, so the two stack on top of each other at the register.

Why is the excise on a single beer so small?

Beer is taxed at roughly $0.24 per gallon, and a 12-ounce can is only about 0.094 gallons, so the excise on one can is under a penny. The per-gallon structure means the tax scales with volume; a full keg or case carries much more excise than a single serving.

Are these the only taxes on cigarettes and alcohol in Connecticut?

No. There is also a federal excise tax on both tobacco and alcohol that is built into wholesale costs, and the 6.35% Connecticut sales tax at checkout. This calculator focuses on the Connecticut state excise plus the state sales tax; federal excise is already embedded in the pre-tax shelf price you enter.

Connecticut Cigarette & Alcohol Tax Calculator

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The Connecticut Cigarette & Alcohol Tax Calculator shows exactly how much state excise tax is baked into the price of tobacco and alcohol in Connecticut, then adds the 6.35% state sales tax to reveal the full amount you pay at the register. Connecticut taxes these products heavily compared with several neighboring states, which is why the tax-loaded total can be a large share of the shelf price.

How it works

Connecticut applies two separate taxes that stack:

Cigarette excise: A flat $4.35 per 20-cigarette pack, which is $0.2175 per cigarette. For a non-standard pack size, the calculator multiplies the per-cigarette rate by the number of cigarettes in the pack.
Alcohol excise: A per-gallon rate paid by distributors and passed into the shelf price — roughly $0.24/gal beer, $0.79/gal still wine, $1.98/gal sparkling wine, and $5.94/gal distilled spirits. The tool converts your bottle volume (milliliters, liters, or gallons) to gallons and multiplies by the rate.

After computing the excise, the calculator adds the 6.35% Connecticut sales tax to the full price — including the embedded excise — because sales tax applies to the total retail price. The result is the final register price.

Worked example

A 750 ml bottle of spirits is 0.750 × 0.264172 = 0.198 gallons. At $5.94/gal the state excise is about $1.18. If the pre-tax shelf price is $25.00, the sales-tax base is $26.18, and the 6.35% sales tax adds about $1.66, for a register total near $27.84.

Notes

Federal excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol are already embedded in the wholesale price and therefore in the pre-tax shelf price you enter — this tool isolates the Connecticut state excise plus the state sales tax. Retail prices also vary by retailer markup, so treat the output as a close estimate rather than an exact receipt.