UK Vape Tax 2026 Explained | What it means for you

After months of discussion, delays and plenty of uncertainty, the UK vape tax is now officially here. Vaping Products Duty (VPD) came into effect on 1 October 2026, bringing a new excise duty on e-liquids that’s quite a significant change for the industry, and for anyone buying vape juice.

The new tax applies to liquids intended for vaping, whether they contain nicotine or not. That includes things like nic salts, freebase e-liquids, shortfills and the liquid inside prefilled pods. Alongside the duty, the government has also introduced Vaping Duty Stamps, which are being added to retail packaging to help identify products supplied through the legitimate market.

So, now that the tax is actually in place, let’s look at what it means for the price of different products, how much duty is charged and why you might not have seen every shop change its prices overnight.

The government has introduced a flat duty of 22p per 1ml of e-liquid, or £2.20 per 10ml. The rate is the same whether the liquid contains 20mg of nicotine, no nicotine at all, or anything in between. The duty is paid by approved businesses in the supply chain, rather than being charged to customers separately at checkout.

When that added cost is passed through to the retail price, VAT also needs to be taken into account. At the standard 20% rate, 22p of duty works out at 26.4p per ml including VAT. So a 10ml bottle could see an extra £2.64 in its VAT-inclusive selling price if the full duty cost is passed on. That doesn’t mean every retailer has to increase their price by exactly that amount, though.

Please note: These are worked examples using the prices from our original 2025 article, not a live price comparison. The figures show the extra duty and VAT if the entire cost is passed on. Actual prices depend on suppliers, retail margins, promotions and whether the stock was produced or imported before the duty started.

Those figures are still pretty eye-watering (especially the shortfills). The increase on a 10ml bottle is significant enough, but when you get to 100ml bottles the tax itself adds £22, or £26.40 once you allow for 20% VAT. It’s easy to see why larger bottles face a much bigger challenge on price.

The same goes for anyone who makes their own e-liquid. HMRC makes clear that vaping liquids are covered even when they need mixing before use, and that includes liquids intended for vaping made with ingredients like PG and VG. That doesn’t mean every bottle of PG or VG sold for an entirely different purpose automatically attracts vape duty, the intended use and product classification are both important.

One thing worth remembering is that the new tax didn’t mean every bottle already sitting on a shop shelf suddenly became duty-paid on 1 October. Retailers can continue selling qualifying older unstamped stock until 31 March 2027. From 1 April 2027, vaping products outside duty suspension must have a valid duty stamp. So for a while at least, you may notice some differences in prices and packaging between products.

As you can imagine, the arrival of Vaping Products Duty has brought quite a big change to the UK vape industry. Although we’ve known about the plans for some time, seeing the duty actually come into effect is another thing entirely. And those figures above only tell part of the story, since manufacturing costs, supply chains and retailer margins can all affect what customers end up paying.

If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering, “why would the government do this?” The government says the aim is to make vaping less affordable and appealing to young people and non-smokers, while keeping an incentive for adult smokers to switch away from cigarettes. Whether the balance is right is something people will understandably have different opinions on.

There’s also the revenue side of things, of course. The government expects VPD to raise money for the Exchequer, and it would be a bit naive to pretend that isn’t part of the wider picture. But it’s important to separate that from the stated public health aim rather than assuming there’s only one reason behind the policy.

If you look at the broader picture, the UK isn’t the first European country to introduce excise duty on vaping liquids. Similar taxes have been brought in elsewhere, although the rates and rules vary between countries. What matters most here is how the new duty affects the price of products people actually buy, and whether the market for larger bottles and DIY liquids can adapt.

To wrap this up, I just want to say that even with these changes now in place, we’ll continue doing what we can to keep costs down for our customers. The tax is something we have to work around, but we’ll still do our best to offer your favourite vaping supplies at a fair price.

For the official rules, see HMRC’s introduction to VPD and the guidance on existing stock and duty stamps.