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Sponsor seeks to consolidate tobacco licensing and enforcement under Liquor Commission
Summary
Senate Bill 80 would shift tobacco licensing and regulatory enforcement responsibilities to the Liquor Commission while leaving tax audit authority with the Department of Revenue Administration (DRA); sponsors said the change would streamline investigations and help close tax-evasion gaps that undercut compliant retailers.
Senate Commerce Committee heard Senate Bill 80, a measure to move licensing and enforcement of tobacco retail outlets into the New Hampshire Liquor Commission while leaving tax-audit authority with the Department of Revenue Administration.
Sen. Tim Lang, sponsor of the bill and chair of a study commission on tobacco taxation, told the committee the change responds to investigative friction between two agencies: the Department of Revenue, which handles wholesaler licensing and tax audits, and liquor enforcement, which oversees retail licensing. Lang said consolidating licensing and enforcement under liquor would create a smoother process to detect and address tax evasion and ensure retailers buy product from taxed wholesalers.
"By doing this, it gives liquor a cleaner enforcement mechanism to be able to take the retail to make sure we're collecting the appropriate tax," Lang said, adding that DRA would retain auditing authority.
Industry representatives including Alicia Preston of the New Hampshire Vapors Association and Brett Scott, president of Smoker's Haven and the Vaporation Association, testified in support. They said noncompliant sellers are undercutting legitimate businesses and that stronger, aligned enforcement could improve collections and level the market.
Jennifer Ramsey, tax policy counsel for the Department of Revenue Administration, signed in to note that issues she had intended to raise were addressed by the amendment the sponsor circulated; she had no additional comments at the hearing.
Lang said the amendment changes repeated uses of "licensee" to "tobacco tax certificate" in many parts of the bill to align terms with existing tax law and reflects coordination between DRA and the Liquor Commission. The committee closed the hearing without taking a vote.
Proponents asked the committee to advance the measure to streamline interagency enforcement and recover lost tax revenue that they estimated could be in the millions, though no specific fiscal figures were entered into the hearing record.
