What is Virginia's cigarette tax per pack?

Virginia charges a state cigarette excise tax of 60 cents per pack of 20 cigarettes (3 cents per cigarette). Many Virginia localities add their own local cigarette tax on top, which this calculator lets you include.

How is Virginia's alcohol tax structured?

Virginia taxes beer and wine by the gallon — about 25.65 cents per gallon on beer and 40 cents per gallon on wine, plus a separate wine liter tax. Distilled spirits are sold through state ABC stores with markup rather than a simple per-gallon excise, so spirits figures are approximate.

Why is Virginia's cigarette tax lower than neighboring states?

As a historic tobacco-growing state, Virginia keeps one of the lowest cigarette excise taxes in the country at 60 cents per pack, far below states like New York. Local add-on taxes can raise the effective rate in some cities.

Does the calculator include federal excise tax?

No. It estimates only Virginia state (and optional local) excise tax. Federal excise on tobacco and alcohol is built into the wholesale price separately and is not shown here.

How accurate are the spirits figures?

Because Virginia is an alcoholic-beverage control (ABC) state, spirits are taxed through state-store markup rather than a single per-gallon rate. The spirits estimate uses a representative effective rate and should be treated as approximate.

Virginia Cigarette & Alcohol Tax Calculator

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Virginia is famous for low sin taxes — as a former tobacco state it keeps cigarette excise far below most of the country, and its beer and wine taxes are modest too. But the excise still adds up, especially with local add-on cigarette taxes. This calculator converts your quantity into the state’s tax base (per pack or per gallon) and shows exactly how much excise tax you are paying.

How it works

Each product is taxed on a different unit:

Cigarettes. $0.60 per pack of 20 ($0.03 per cigarette) in state excise. An optional local cigarette tax can be added per pack — some Virginia cities levy their own.
Beer. About $0.2565 per gallon. Enter gallons directly, or ounces and the tool converts (128 ounces per gallon).
Wine. About $0.40 per gallon state excise. A separate wine liter tax also applies on Virginia wine but is not broken out here.
Spirits. Virginia is an ABC (control) state, so spirits are taxed through state-store markup rather than a flat per-gallon excise. The tool uses a representative effective rate per gallon as an approximation.

The excise = quantity in the tax unit × the per-unit rate.

Example and notes

A carton of cigarettes (10 packs) carries $6.00 in Virginia state excise (10 × $0.60) — before any local add-on. A case of beer, roughly 2.25 gallons, carries about $0.58 in state excise. The per-unit burden is small, which is why Virginia ranks among the lowest-tax states for tobacco and alcohol.

These figures are state (and optional local) excise only. Federal excise is embedded in wholesale prices upstream and is not shown, and the spirits estimate is approximate because of the ABC markup system.