How Much The Vape Tax Could Increase Prices
How Much the
Vape Tax Could
Increase Prices
A plain English breakdown of the 2026 UK vape excise duty. What the proposed rate adds to a 10ml nic salt, a 100ml shortfill plus a longfill after duty and VAT are applied in full.
The proposed UK vape excise duty is £2.20 per 10ml of e-liquid. After 20% VAT is applied to the duty that becomes roughly £2.64 at the till per 10ml bottle. In practice a £3.99 nic salt moves to around £6.63. A £14.99 shortfill rises to around £37. A longfill concentrate remains cheapest per ml once mixed because less liquid is duty-paid. The duty starts on 1 October 2026.
The duty, the VAT plus
the total on a 10ml bottle
The all-in price rise for a typical 10ml bottle breaks down into three parts. Each is a separate line on the HMRC calculation.
Excise duty per 10ml
The proposed flat rate added at source by producers or importers before VAT is calculated.
VAT on the duty
Standard 20% VAT is applied on top of the duty because the duty forms part of the taxable price.
Total added per 10ml
The full uplift passed through to the retail price. A £3.99 bottle becomes around £6.63 at the till.
The duty is a flat rate per millilitre. The price rise is not flat across formats.
The design of the UK vape excise duty is simpler than many commentators assume. HMRC has settled on a flat rate per millilitre of e-liquid regardless of nicotine strength. That one rule produces very different headline price rises depending on bottle size so the same duty feels small on a 10ml nic salt plus feels large on a 100ml shortfill. Here is the maths in plain English.
A 10ml nic salt bottle
A 10ml nic salt carries £2.20 of duty. VAT at 20% is applied on top of the duty because the duty forms part of the taxable value. That means an extra 44p of VAT on the duty portion alone. The all-in uplift is £2.64 per bottle.
A nic salt that currently retails at £3.99 therefore moves to somewhere between £6.40 and £6.80 after 1 October 2026 depending on how retailers round. Multi-buy deals such as “3 for £10” will typically reappear as “3 for £18”.
A 100ml shortfill bottle
A 100ml shortfill is taxed ten times more in absolute terms because it contains ten times more e-liquid. That is £22 of duty plus £4.40 of VAT on the duty. Total uplift is £26.40 per bottle.
A shortfill currently retailing at £14.99 lands close to £37 post-duty. That is the single biggest absolute price rise in the vape market. On a per millilitre basis the shortfill is still cheaper than a 10ml nic salt even after duty because the existing price is so much lower per ml.
A longfill concentrate
Longfills are the quiet winners of the new duty. Only the concentrate in the bottle is duty-paid e-liquid. The VG and nicotine shot the user adds at home to complete the mix either escape duty entirely or carry only their own smaller share. A typical 20ml longfill concentrate sold to mix up to 120ml of finished e-liquid therefore carries far less total duty than buying 120ml of ready-to-vape shortfill.
Expect longfill sales to grow sharply after October 2026 as cost-conscious adult vapers do the maths.
Why is VAT charged on the duty itself?
This is the part of the calculation that surprises most people. Excise duty is treated as part of the taxable value of the product under UK VAT law. The same rule applies to tobacco duty on cigarettes plus alcohol duty on spirits. The outcome is that VAT is charged on a base that includes the duty which is why the headline uplift on a 10ml bottle is £2.64 rather than £2.20.
- Duty is paid first by the producer or importer at the point the product leaves the bonded warehouse.
- VAT is calculated next on the full invoice price including the duty.
- Retail price is set last with retailer margin added on top of the VAT-inclusive duty-paid cost.
Four ways UK vapers will
push back on the new duty
Switch from nic salt to shortfill
Shortfills work out cheaper per ml even after duty. The per bottle headline is scarier yet the pence-per-puff is lower for sub-ohm users.
Move to longfills
Only the concentrate is duty-paid. Users add VG plus nic shot at home. Effective duty paid per finished ml is the lowest of any format.
Stock up before 1 October
Pre-duty stock bought before the cutover can be sold at old prices during the transition window. Expect bulk offers from September 2026.
Reduce nicotine strength
Duty is charged per ml not per mg of nicotine. Lowering strength does not cut duty but can cut consumption which does cut total spend.
Current price vs
post-duty retail price
A product by product look at the April 2026 typical price versus what that same product is expected to retail for from 1 October 2026 once duty plus VAT on duty are passed through.
Current retail price
- ✓10ml nic salt at around £3.99.
- ✓3 for £10 multi-buy on 10ml nic salts.
- ✓100ml shortfill at around £14.99.
- ✓20ml longfill concentrate at around £11.99.
- ✓Nicotine shot 10ml at around £1.
- ✓Multi-bottle bundles common on shortfills plus longfills.
Expected post-duty price
- ✗10ml nic salt around £6.63 after duty plus VAT.
- ✗3 for £18 multi-buy becomes the new sweet spot.
- ✗100ml shortfill around £37 once £26.40 duty plus VAT applied.
- ✗20ml longfill concentrate around £17 for the concentrate itself.
- ✗Nicotine shot 10ml around £3.64 if classed as duty paid e-liquid.
- ✗Promotional activity likely reduced in the first weeks of the new regime.
Pricing is one slice of the broader UK vape tax story. For the full set of tax FAQs plus every other major UK vape regulation question visit our complete vaping FAQs hub. It is the fastest place to get a plain English answer on the duty plus everything around it.
Back to the Vaping FAQs hub
This article sits inside our complete FAQs knowledge base. Head back to the hub for the full index covering MHRA rules, TPD, the 2025 disposable ban, the 2026 vape tax plus retailer compliance.
More on the UK vape tax
Once you know how much the duty adds to the till the next questions are usually about who is hit hardest plus why the Treasury is introducing it in the first place. Our guide to how the proposed vape tax could affect adult vapers runs worked examples for six different user profiles. The political and public health case behind the duty is unpacked in our deep dive on why the UK government is introducing a vape tax. For the comparison question most readers ask next our piece on how the vape tax is different from tobacco duty sets the two regimes side by side.