PURPOSE: This rule sets forth the amount of tax levied for the state, St. Louis and Jackson Counties taxes levied upon the sale of cigarettes.

1. (1) The eight and one-half (8 1/2) mills per cigarette state tax levied upon the sale of cigarettes is equal to seventeen (17) cents per package of twenty (20) cigarettes. The two and one-half (2 1/2) mills per cigarette St. Louis County and Jackson County tax levied upon the sale of cigarettes is equal to five (5) cents per package of twenty (20) cigarettes.
2. (2) If the federal excise tax on cigarettes is reduced, the Missouri Cigarette Tax will increase by the amount that the federal excise tax is reduced.
3. (3) If after the date the federal excise tax was reduced, the federal excise tax is reimposed in full or in part, the Missouri Cigarette Tax will be reduced by the amount of the federal excise tax reimposed.
4. (4) In no case shall the Missouri Cigarette Tax be reduced lower than six and one-half (6 1/2) mills per cigarette.

AUTHORITY: sections 66.380, 149.015 and 210.320, RSMo (Cum. Supp. 1993) and 136.030, 136.120 and 149.021, RSMo (1986).* Cigarette Tax Regulation 2 was last filed Dec. 31, 1975, effective Jan. 10, 1976. Amended: Filed Feb. 18, 1983, effective June 11, 1983. Emergency amendment filed Sept. 16, 1985, effective Sept. 26, 1985, expired Jan. 24, 1986. Amended: Filed Sept. 16, 1985, effective Dec. 26, 1985. Amended: Filed Jan. 31, 1994, effective July 30, 1994. *Original authority: 66.380, RSMo (1967), amended 1993; 136.030, RSMo (1945), amended 1947, 1949, 1965; 136.120, RSMo (1945); 149.015, RSMo (1974), amended 1982, 1993; 12 CSR 10-16 149.021, RSMo (1974), amended 1982; and 210.320, RSMo (1939), amended 1969, 1976, 1978, 1993. ITT Canteen Corp. v. Spradling 526 SW2d 11 (1975). Under prior Missouri law, on declaratory judgment brought for purpose of declaring void a prior rule of Department of Revenue, court held that the amount of the cigarette tax is not a part of the sales price; it is a levy on the consumer inspired at the time of the retail sale, and the seller is a mere agent (for the state) for collection, thus considered, the amount of the cigarette tax was not properly includable in the sales tax base under the 1969 statutes. Op. Atty. Gen. No. 431, Ferris (9-15- 66). Cigarettes made from a variety of lettuce, being nicotine-free for tobacco, going by the brand name “Braw’s”, were subject to the cigarette tax imposed by former section 149.020, RSMo.