Cigarette tax: stamps and meter machines: report.

The Cigarette and Tobacco Products Tax Law imposes a tax on distributors of cigarettes at the rate of $0.87 per package of 20 cigarettes. That law requires that tax be paid through the use of stamps or meter impressions, and requires that these stamps or meter impressions be affixed to each package of cigarettes distributed. That law requires stamps and meter register settings to be sold at their denominated values less 0.85% to licensed distributors. Existing law, no later than July 1, 2005, required the Board of Equalization to submit a report to the Legislature that evaluates the average actual costs, including labor, for applying indicia or impressions, bonding, warehousing, and leasing stamping equipment, including case cutters and packers, associated with applying stamps or meter impressions to cigarette packages and requires that report to be updated every 2 years. This bill instead would require a report making the same evaluation to be submitted to the Legislature no later than January 1, 2018, and would require that report to be updated and submitted to the Legislature every 2 years.