Vape tax UK 2026

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Regulation Is Missing the Point: A Retail View from the Front Line of Vaping and Nicotine Control

In 2024, the UK Prime minister, Mr. Sunak, announced Tobacco and Vapes bill, which will see the price of e-liquid increase by 57%. While the change in the government left the hope that said legislation will not come into effect, Labour-led government is now pushing this legislation through very quietly.

When speaking to my customers, no one has even heard of the tax coming in, and the media isn’t talking about it either. I wonder why that is.

The unfortunate reality is that from 1st of October 2026, all vaping liquid will be subject to duty tax at the rate of £2.20 per 10ml + VAT (20%). This will increase the price of a 10ml bottle from around £3.99 to approximately £6.99, 100ml bottles will increase by at least £22, meaning that the tax will be higher than what the bottle itself is worth. While we are given until 1st of April 2027 to sell out of the untaxed stock, the eventual price increase is still 57% compared to a 5% increase in tobacco. Nicotine pouches remain nearly completely unregulated and untaxed (I believe they are looking to put an age restriction on buying them, as they’re currently legal to even an 8 year old to buy, but nothing else will be limited) .

The rule is - any vape liquid and disposable ordered between now and 31st of September (from a shop’s POV) will come in untaxed, anything ordered after will have duty tax attached to it so most consumers will not see the switch overnight, rather it’ll happen gradually. from 1st of April 2027, ALL liquids (and disposables) will be subject to duty tax, and untaxed stock is now illegal to sell.

The tax will apply to

  • all vape liquid
  • disposables

Tax will not apply to kits, pods and accessories.

From a vape shop worker to a vaper - There WILL be loopholes for most nicotine strengths. There Will be a way around most of the tax, however higher strengths might suffer, and the way we vape and buy vape liquid will change quite drastically to offset at least some of the tax.

When announcing the taxation, the government’s excuse was that they are doing this to discourage underage vaping and casual up-takers (the people who have never smoked before).

Have you heard of the tax and what is your take on it?

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I see you mentioned disposable vapes in your post these are banned here in the UK and for what I’ve read and heard only the e-liquids containing nicotine will be taxed as pg+vg+ flavouring is food based so all freebase liquids won’t be taxed however the nicotine shots you purchase to add to your freebase will be taxed and all the ready made 10ml that contains nicotine along with filled pods ect and there is only one tax to be added not a tax and vat as vat is a tax ( value added tax ) at 20% so what I gathered was as nic shots are 18 and 20 mg strength these will be taxed at 22% so what you will find people will reduce the amount of nicotine they use to cut costs the ones hardest hit will be the ready made e-liquids that contains nicotine for example a10 ml nic shot is about £2 regardless of strength this will become £2.20 so not a big impact but a 10ml ready made e-liquid at £4.99 will cost £5.99 this is all mainly due to lost revenue from people moving to vape from smoking so they lose the tax each time someone quits smoking so they try to get tax back another way but on the bright side you look at other countries banning vaping or flavours all together if paying a few pence more for your e- liquid stops them banning a great quit smoking aid then it’s worth it I think.

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Nope take that back all e liquids will be taxed with or without nicotine £2.20 per 10ml means a 100ml will cost £22 more a nic shot that costs £1.49 will jump to £4.79

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I was just coming here to share more data and saw you’ve corrected yourself :rofl:

The duty tax will be £2.20 per 10ml and then VAT (20%) will be added on top of that so the actual rise in cost is £2.64 per 10ml at minimum.

As a person that works in the industry, we’ve done a deep dive into the legislation as well as what other European countries are doing (for example Germany has got the same tax system that we’re about to get) so they’ve already figured out ways around.

If the industry carries on selling liquid the same way as we do currently, the tax is very steep. However, as speculation only, as we’ll get more information at the next expo, it looks like higher strengths (18mg and 20mg) will remain in 10ml bottles at around £6.99, and 12mg and under will be DIY’d to save on tax as technically VG/PG, if bought from the correct company can’t be taxed as it’s also used in hospitals and food industry. Chat GTP also says that if all ingredients are sold separately then technically they can’t be taxed as they’re not ‘vaping ready,’ however I’m not too sure on how true that is.

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Under disposables I mean the Pixl 8000, Dojo 10k, Lost Mary and other prefiled pod kits which are disposables in all but name only and still very much legal in the UK as they’ve got a charging port and replaceable pod.