Cigarette butt, to be specific.
All over the world, governments impose draconian taxes on tobacco, and then they are surprised when projected revenues don’t materialize. We’ve seen this in Bulgaria and Romania,
and we’ve seen this Laffer Curve effect in Washington, DC, and Michigan.
Even the Government Accountability Office has found big Laffer Curve effects from tobacco taxation.
And now we’re seeing the same result in Ireland.
Here are some details from an Irish newspaper.
[N]ew Department of Finance figures showing that tobacco excise tax receipts are falling dramatically short of targets, even though taxes have increased and the number of people smoking has remained constant… [T]he latest upsurge in [cigarette] smuggling … is costing the state hundreds of millions in lost revenue. Criminal gangs are openly selling smuggled cigarettes on the streets of central Dublin and other cities, door to door and at fairs and markets. Counterfeit cigarettes can be brought to the Irish market at a cost of just 20 cents a pack and sold on the black market at €4.50. The average selling price of legitimate cigarettes is €9.20 a pack. …Ireland has the most expensive cigarettes in the European Union, meaning that smugglers can make big profits by offering them at cheaper prices.
I had to laugh at the part of the article that says, “receipts are falling dramatically short of targets, even though taxes have increased.”