UK vape tax starts 1 October: £2.20 duty per 10ml of e-liquid — what happens to prices

The charge is called Vaping Products Duty and is set at a flat £2.20 per 10ml of liquid — 22p per millilitre. The rate does not depend on strength: nicotine and nicotine-free liquids are both taxed, including shortfills and zero-nicotine bottles. Only registered medicinal products are exempt.

How much prices will rise

If a shop passes the tax on in full, a 10ml bottle that cost £3.99 yesterday will cost about £6.60: £2.20 of duty plus 20% VAT on top adds £2.64. Bigger bottles are hit hardest: a 50ml shortfill goes up by £13.20 including VAT, a 100ml bottle by £26.40. A 2ml pod or cartridge adds around 53p. Light vapers will barely notice; DIY mixers buying large bottles will feel it most — base liquids are taxed too.

ONLYWAY NEWSLIVEMoney · 30.09UK vape tax starts 1 October: £2.20 duty per 10ml of e-liquid — what happens to pricesMoney · 30.09Leaking roof, flooded basement: who pays? Insurance, the Flood Re scheme, and what the state provides after major floodsImmigration · 30.09The UK airport border: what to tell the officer, who can use the e-gates, and what you can bring in your suitcaseTax · 30.09Register for Self Assessment by 5 October: side income over £1,000, rent, selling on Vinted and eBayLife · 30.09Winter without a down jacket or fur hat: thrift, fashion or climate? What Britons actually wear — and spend on — in the rainy seasonLife · 29.09The wettest season begins: November is London's rain record-holder. All the numbers — and three jobs before the first stormsLife · 29.09Divorce in England: what it costs, how long it takes, and why 'marry an Englishman and take half' is a mythHousing · 29.09Your First Home: equity loans return to England — 20% from the government with a 2.5% deposit. The new scheme, and every other way to buy for lessLife · 29.09Lost property and seized goods in the UK: where finds are stored, where unclaimed items go, and whether they really sell for penniesLife · 29.09Martha's Rule in England's hospitals: how to summon a second medical team when someone is getting worse and nobody is listeningONLYWAY NEWS · appInstall the ONLYWAY NEWS appFresh UK news, classifieds, key dates and exchange rates on your home screen, one tap away. Free.NewsClassifiedsCalendarRates

Cigarettes go up on the same day

To stop the new tax making smoking relatively cheaper than vaping, the government is also applying a one-off tobacco duty rise from 1 October: an extra £2.20 per 100 cigarettes — 44p on a pack of 20, about 53p with VAT — and £2.20 per 50g of other tobacco, including rolling tobacco. This comes on top of the routine annual uprating applied in November 2025. The stated aim is to preserve the price gap that keeps switching from cigarettes to vaping financially worthwhile.

Duty stamps and uneven prices in shops

The duty arrives together with vaping duty stamps, similar to those on alcohol. From 1 October manufacturers and importers may only release stamped products, but retailers are allowed to sell through old unstamped stock until 31 March 2027. So for the coming months the same liquid may cost a couple of pounds more or less depending on whether a shop still has old stock. From 1 April 2027 selling unstamped bottles becomes illegal — after that date a suspiciously cheap bottle with no stamp is almost certainly illicit, with no guarantee of what is actually in it.

What it means in practice

Stocking up at old prices is only possible until the end of today; after that it is a matter of catching leftover old stock. HMRC expects the duty to raise more than £550 million a year by 2030-31, so the tax is here to stay and is unlikely to be touched in the Autumn Budget on 28 October. Even with the duty, vaping remains considerably cheaper than smoking — the government is deliberately keeping that gap. We have collected the full list of October changes — from the energy price cap to new workers' rights — in a separate guide.