Wednesday, July 25 2007
By Laura Layden (www.naplesnews.com)
Rocky Patel fears his business may go up in smoke with a federal proposal to raise taxes on premium cigars by as much as 20,000 percent.
With hard work Patel has outlasted many of his competitors and grown his Bonita Springs-based business, Rocky Patel Premium Cigar Co., into one of the largest boutique cigar companies in the world.
But he wonders whether it can survive an increase in taxes from a nickel to as much as $10 per cigar.
The tax increase would be used to expand a federal program that provides health-care coverage to poor children who can’t afford insurance and don’t qualify for Medicaid. The proposal would raise $35 billion over five years for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Wednesday, Patel held a town meeting at his headquarters office behind the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track to get the word out to consumers and vendors about how the tax proposal will hurt him and the cigar industry...
Continue reading Businesses fret over proposed cigar-tax hike
