How much is the cigarette tax in Maine?

Maine charges a state cigarette excise of $2.00 per pack of 20 cigarettes, which works out to 10 cents per cigarette. Maine does not levy additional county or city cigarette taxes, so the $2.00 per pack is the full state excise on top of the wholesale price and the general sales tax.

How is Maine's alcohol excise tax calculated?

Maine taxes alcohol per gallon: roughly $0.35 per gallon on beer (malt liquor) and $0.60 per gallon on table wine. The tax is applied to total volume, so the calculator converts your container size to gallons (128 fluid ounces per gallon) before multiplying by the per-gallon rate.

Why is the spirits tax different in Maine?

Maine is a control state, meaning the state's Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages controls and marks up the sale of distilled spirits rather than levying a simple per-gallon excise. The effective state revenue per gallon of spirits is commonly estimated at about $5.83 per gallon, which this calculator uses as the spirits rate.

Does Maine sales tax apply on top of excise?

Yes. Excise tax is built into the shelf price, and Maine's 5.5% general sales tax then applies to most cigarette and alcohol purchases at checkout. This calculator shows only the state excise component, not the additional sales tax, so the total you pay at the register is higher.

Is this calculator official?

No. It is an educational estimate based on published Maine excise rates and is not tax advice. Rates can change with new legislation, and special categories such as fortified wine, hard cider, or low-alcohol products may be taxed differently. Confirm current rates with Maine Revenue Services before relying on the figures.

Maine Cigarette & Alcohol Tax Calculator

Email me this result

Get this tool's output sent to your inbox, plus one useful tool a week. No spam, unsubscribe any time.

This tool shows how much Maine excise tax is built into the price of cigarettes and alcohol. Excise taxes are charged per pack or per gallon — not as a percentage — so they are invisible on a receipt but very real in the shelf price. Enter what you are buying to see the state tax it carries.

How it works

For cigarettes, Maine charges a flat per-pack excise:

Cigarette tax = Packs × $2.00

For alcohol, the tax is per gallon, so the calculator first converts your volume to gallons (1 US gallon = 128 fluid ounces) and then multiplies by the rate:

gallons = (containers × oz each) ÷ 128
excise  = gallons × rate per gallon

Maine’s 2025 per-gallon rates are about $0.35 for beer, $0.60 for table wine, and an effective $5.83 for spirits (Maine is a control state, so the spirits figure reflects the state’s markup rather than a posted excise).

Why Maine’s rates look the way they do

Maine’s $2.00-per-pack cigarette tax sits in the middle of the national range — higher than low-tax states like Virginia but well below New York. Its beer and wine excise rates are relatively modest. Spirits are different because Maine controls liquor distribution through the state, so the “tax” on a bottle is really an embedded markup. On top of all of this, Maine’s 5.5% general sales tax applies at checkout, which this calculator does not include.

Example

A case of beer (24 × 12 oz) carries:

Volume = 24 × 12 = 288 oz = 288 ÷ 128 = 2.25 gallons
Excise = 2.25 × $0.35 = about $0.79 in Maine beer tax

Note: This is an estimate of the state excise only. Add Maine’s 5.5% sales tax and any wholesale markup to get the full price impact, and verify current rates at maine.gov/revenue.