What is Montana's cigarette tax?

Montana taxes cigarettes at $1.70 per pack of 20, which is a mid-range rate among U.S. states. The tax is paid by distributors via tax stamps and built into the shelf price, so you do not see it as a separate line at the register.

How does Montana tax beer, wine, and spirits?

Montana applies per-gallon excise taxes — roughly $0.139 per gallon on beer and $1.06 per gallon on table wine. Spirits are different because Montana is a control state: liquor is sold through the state system, and the markup plus license taxes act as the effective tax, equating to several dollars per gallon.

What does it mean that Montana is a liquor control state?

It means the state controls the wholesale distribution of distilled spirits and sets the markup on them. Instead of a simple per-gallon excise, the effective spirits tax comes from the state markup plus license and excise taxes, so the per-gallon figure here is an approximation of that combined cost.

Is there sales tax on cigarettes and alcohol in Montana?

No. Montana has no general state sales tax, so the only state tax on these items is the excise built into the price. That makes the per-pack and per-gallon excises the full state tax story, unlike states that stack sales tax on top of excise.

Why do these taxes vary in real life?

Beer excise is tiered by brewery production volume, wine taxation can include an additional percentage component at wholesale, and spirits pricing reflects shifting state markup. So the estimate here uses representative rates — confirm current figures with the Montana Department of Revenue for exact amounts.

Montana 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.

Montana taxes cigarettes and alcohol through excise taxes that are embedded in the shelf price rather than added at the register — and because Montana has no general sales tax, that excise is the entire state tax. Cigarettes are taxed at $1.70 per pack, beer and wine at per-gallon rates, and spirits through the state’s liquor control markup. This tool estimates the excise on a purchase.

How it works

Each item is multiplied by its per-unit excise and summed:

cigarette tax = packs × $1.70
beer tax      = gallons × $0.139
wine tax      = gallons × $1.06
spirits tax   = (liters × 0.264172) × $9.74/gal equivalent
total         = sum of the above

The spirits figure is an effective per-gallon equivalent of the state markup and taxes, since Montana sells distilled spirits through its control system rather than levying a simple per-gallon excise.

Example and notes

A single pack of cigarettes carries $1.70 of Montana excise. A 5-gallon purchase of wine adds about 5 × 1.06 = $5.30, and a 0.75-liter bottle of spirits carries roughly 0.198 × 9.74 = $1.93 of effective spirits tax. None of these have sales tax stacked on top in Montana. Beer rates are tiered by brewery size and spirits pricing shifts with state markup, so confirm current rates with the Montana Department of Revenue.