AND ADMINISTRATION WHO TECHNICAL MANUAL ONTOBACCO TAX POLICYAND ADMINISTRATION © World Health Organization 2021 Some rights reserved. This work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo). Under the terms of this licence, you may copy, redistribute and adapt the work for non-commercialpurposes, provided the work is appropriately cited, as indicated below. In any use of this work, thereshould be no suggestion that WHO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use ofthe WHO logo is not permitted. If you adapt the work, then you must license your work under the sameor equivalent Creative Commons licence. If you create a translation of this work, you should add thefollowing disclaimer along with the suggested citation: “This translation was not created by the WorldHealth Organization (WHO). WHO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. Theoriginal English edition shall be the binding and authentic edition”. Any mediation relating to disputes arising under the licence shall be conducted in accordance with themediation rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization (http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules/). Suggested citation.WHO technical manual on tobacco tax policy and administration. Geneva: WorldHealth Organization; 2021. Licence:CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. Cataloguing-in-Publication (CIP) data.CIP data are available athttp://apps.who.int/iris. Third-party materials.If you wish to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, suchas tables, figures or images, it is your responsibility to determine whether permission is needed for thatreuse and to obtain permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringementof any third-party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user. General disclaimers.The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publicationdo not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WHO concerning the legal statusof any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiersor boundaries. Dotted and dashed lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which theremay not yet be full agreement. The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that they areendorsed or recommended by WHO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. All reasonable precautions have been taken by WHO to verify the information contained in this publication.However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed orimplied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no eventshall WHO be liable for damages arising from its use. Document design by Ana Sabino. Contents ForewordvAcknowledgementsviiAcronymsviiiExecutive summaryxi CHAPTER 1.Why this manual? CHAPTER 2. Tobacco excise tax policy11 2.1Global overview of tobacco tax practices112.2Designing excise tax policy182.3Domestic and regional policy integration552.4New and emerging nicotine and tobacco products592.5Conclusions75ANNEX 2.1Countries that apply different types of excise tax structures89ANNEX 2.2Analytics of the tax base elasticity90ANNEX 2.3Elements of the devices that make up ENDS/ENNDS products91 CHAPTER 3. Tobacco tax administration93 3.1Introduction933.2Institutional arrangements943.3The tax compliance cycle1023.4Control and enforcement1153.5Tax administration of other tobacco products1523.6The broader elements of a good tax system1553.7Conclusions156ANNEX 3.1Composition of tobacco products166ANNEX 3.2Example of forestalling and countermeasures172 CHAPTER 4. Political economy 175 4.1SCARE tactic S: Smuggling and illicit trade1764.2SCARE tactic C: Court and legal challenges1984.3SCARE tactic A: Anti-poor rhetoric or regressivity2124.4SCARE tactic R: Revenue reduction2174.5SCARE tactic E: Employment impact2284.6Earmarking tobacco tax revenues to fund health233ANNEX 4.1Methods to assess the nature and size of the illicit tobacco trade 253ANNEX 4.2How are the tobacco tax revenues earmarked?269 CHAPTER 5.Best practices 271 TOBACCO TAX REFORM CHECKLIST (FOR TAX POLICY-MAKERS)283 Foreword In 1999, the World Bank’sCurbing the Epidemicwas the first report by an interna-tional organization to recognize that increasing tobacco excise taxes was the mosteffective and cost-effective measure to reduce tobacco use and save lives. Over thetwo decades since, the evidence base supporting this claim, especially in low- andmiddle-income countries, has been steadily growing. Meanwhile, the credibility ofthe tobacco industry’s arguments against tobacco taxation has been slowly waning.In short, health-promoting tobacco taxation has come of age, and the evidence hasconsistent