German Bundestag Passes Tobacco Tax Hikes, Raising E-Liquid Duty to €0.44/ml by 2030

Germany's Bundestag on Thursday approved annual increases in tobacco excise duties through 2030, raising the duty on e-cigarette liquids to €0.44 per millilitre by 2030 and pushing the average cigarette pack price toward €12.

The amendments to the Tobacco Tax Act were passed on Oct. 15 in the version submitted by the Bundestag's Finance Committee on Oct. 14, under document 21/8605. The committee raised several proposed rates above the government's original bill and adjusted implementation dates and tax-stamp arrangements for certain product categories.

For e-liquids classified under the act's "substitutes for tobacco products," the 2026 rate is €0.32 per millilitre. Under the approved bill, the rate will rise each year from 2027 through 2030; the committee lifted the proposed 2027 rate from €0.33 to €0.38 and the 2030 rate from €0.36 to €0.44 — a 37.5% increase over 2026. For a 10 ml bottle, the excise charge would climb from €3.20 in 2026 to €3.80 in 2027 and €4.40 in 2030, an extra €1.20 per bottle by 2030 excluding VAT. The committee's fiscal assumptions treat the additional excise costs as passed on to consumers through higher prices. The per-millilitre rate does not automatically apply to all alternative nicotine products, including nicotine pouches.

Heated tobacco is covered by the same schedule. Under the act, heated tobacco is taxed through a combination of pipe tobacco duty and an additional component calculated as 80% of the corresponding cigarette excise duty minus the pipe tobacco duty, with each individually portioned stick treated as equivalent to one cigarette. In the government's original proposal, the ministry of finance estimated the average excise on heated tobacco would rise from 16.65 euro cents per stick in 2026 to 23.12 cents by 2030; that estimate reflects the original bill rather than a recalculation under the committee's higher cigarette rates.

Conventional cigarettes face annual excise increases through 2030 as well. The finance committee raised the ad valorem component to 21.05% of the retail price and increased the fixed duty for each year, subject to statutory minimum duty requirements. According to the German public broadcaster Tagesschau, the weighted average retail price of a pack of 20 cigarettes is projected to rise from about €8 today to almost €12 by 2030, with some brands reaching €14. Those are price forecasts based on the proposed tax changes, not legally mandated selling prices. The finance committee's estimates assume the measures will generate approximately €11.8 billion in additional tax revenue over the four-year period.

The governing CDU/CSU–SPD coalition supported the bill; the AfD, the Greens and the Left voted against it, along with two lawmakers from the CDU/CSU group. The reform is part of fiscal consolidation agreed by the government in April, which lists the tobacco-tax adjustment among the measures meant to reduce the federal budget shortfall, according to the federal ministry of finance's published FAQ on the law.