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From 1 October 2026, HMRC's new Vaping Products Duty adds £2.20 per 10ml to every millilitre of vape liquid sold in the UK, with 20% VAT charged on top of the duty. There is no phased roll-out, so it lands in one go. Use the calculator below to see what your usual products will cost.
Figures based on the official HMRC duty rate published in the Vaping Products Duty policy paper.
Two separate things take effect on 1 October 2026, the duty itself and the stamp scheme that polices it. Here is how they differ.
A new HMRC excise duty on any vaping liquid sold in the UK. It applies whether that liquid sits in a 10ml bottle, a 2ml prefilled pod, a 50ml shortfill or the tank of a big-puff kit.
Source: GOV.UK, VPD policy paper
Every retail pack that has cleared the duty must carry a stamp, the same principle as the small tax stamp on a bottle of spirits. It signals to HMRC, the trade and the customer that duty has been paid.
Source: GOV.UK, VDS scheme information
The government's stated aim is to discourage young people from picking up vaping, and to narrow the price gap with cigarettes, while keeping vaping the cheaper option so smokers are not pushed back to tobacco.
It also raises revenue. The duty is forecast to bring in around £500 million a year by the end of the decade.
Find the profile closest to how much liquid you get through, and see what the duty adds to your monthly, yearly and five-year spend.
Figures assume the £2.20 per 10ml duty rate, 20% VAT on the duty, and steady monthly usage. Work out your own total by multiplying your monthly millilitres by £0.264. HMRC may adjust the duty rate in future budgets.
Yes. Even with the duty applied, vaping is still expected to work out cheaper than smoking. The gap just narrows.
The noticeable change is at the till, where a single purchase costs more in one go. Across a full month, it still comes to less than a comparable cigarette habit.
Three dates worth pinning to the fridge. Everything HMRC has confirmed, in one place.
The £2.20 per 10ml duty starts being charged. Newly duty-stamped stock begins entering the supply chain from this date.
Stamps must be applied to retail packs that have cleared duty. Pre-tax stock stays on shelves alongside it, so older pricing may still appear until that stock sells through.
Every vaping product outside duty suspension in the UK must carry a vaping duty stamp. No stamp means no lawful retail sale.
Between October 2026 and April 2027, shops may sell older stock bought before the duty alongside newer stock that carries it.
So for a period you may see the same product at two different prices depending on when it was brought in. That is not an error, just old and new stock sitting side by side. Prices settle once the older stock clears.
Stock that has already cleared the supply chain before October is not re-taxed at retail. Bringing your usual lines forward is the simplest way to lock in today's trade prices and protect your margin through the changeover.
Vaping Products Duty applies to the liquid only. Empty hardware, coils and non-vaping lines are unaffected, so there is no duty reason to bring these forward.
Free UK next day delivery on trade orders over £200, same day dispatch before 2pm, and over 3,000 lines in stock. Open a wholesale account and lock in pre-duty pricing while it lasts.
The duty will not land evenly across the trade. Larger operators can forecast demand, buy early and absorb the first few months. For independent shops, that breathing room is harder to find.
Pulling three months of liquid forward means tying up working capital in stock that will sit on a shelf. For a shop running week to week, that money is usually already spoken for.
Nobody yet knows how consumers will react to a sudden price step, or which lines will hold their volume. Buying deep on the wrong flavours is an expensive way to find out.
A convenience store with a stockroom the size of a cupboard cannot physically take delivery of a quarter's worth of liquid, however good the pre-duty price is.
The result is real strain, on shelf prices, on how much range a shop can afford to carry, and in some cases on whether it stays open at all. Given time, that could change the shape of the market.
There is also a compliance layer to plan for. From 1 April 2027 every product on your shelf outside duty suspension must carry a vaping duty stamp, so anything unstamped needs to be sold through before then.
Buying little and often from a distributor is not the same as buying deep, but it does soften two of the three pressures above. Smaller, more frequent orders mean less capital sitting still and less space given over to storage.
Click any question to expand it.
This page is general information, not tax or legal advice. For your own compliance position, check the HMRC guidance or speak to your accountant.
Prefer a table to a calculator? Duty is charged on liquid volume, not on price, so the amount added is identical whether a 10ml bottle sells for £2.49 or £4.99. Find your format and add the figure to your current price.
What gets added to one pack, at the counter.
| Product format | Liquid | Duty | VAT on duty | Total added |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2ml prefilled pod | 2ml | £0.44 | £0.09 | £0.53 |
| 10ml nic salt or e-liquid | 10ml | £2.20 | £0.44 | £2.64 |
| 12ml prefilled kit | 12ml | £2.64 | £0.53 | £3.17 |
| 20ml big puff kit or twin pack | 20ml | £4.40 | £0.88 | £5.28 |
| 50ml shortfill | 50ml | £11.00 | £2.20 | £13.20 |
| 100ml shortfill | 100ml | £22.00 | £4.40 | £26.40 |
What the duty adds to a trade order, so you can plan your buying before October.
| Case makeup | Liquid | Duty | VAT on duty | Total added |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 × 10ml bottles | 100ml | £22.00 | £4.40 | £26.40 |
| 20 × 10ml bottles | 200ml | £44.00 | £8.80 | £52.80 |
| 5 × 12ml prefilled kits | 60ml | £13.20 | £2.64 | £15.84 |
| 10 × 20ml big puff kits | 200ml | £44.00 | £8.80 | £52.80 |
| 10 × 2ml pod packs of 2 | 40ml | £8.80 | £1.76 | £21.12 |
Every case you bring forward before 1 October 2026 avoids the figures in the table above. Browse the duty-affected categories and lock in current trade pricing.
Shop nic salts Shop refill podsVaping Products Duty is charged at £2.20 per 10ml of vaping liquid. We then add VAT at 20% on the duty itself, giving £2.64 added per 10ml, and apply that to the current price. The sum for any pack is total millilitres multiplied by £0.264.
Treat every figure here as an estimate of the duty component alone, not a price forecast. It is based on the official HMRC rate published in the Vaping Products Duty policy paper, alongside the Vaping Duty Stamps scheme information.
General information only, not tax, legal or financial advice. For your own duty position, registration obligations or stamp compliance, check the HMRC guidance directly or speak to your accountant.