Title 67, Taxes And Licenses

(a) The rate on all other tobacco products, including, but not limited to, cigars, cheroots, stogies, beedies, bidis, manufactured tobacco, and snuff of all descriptions made of tobacco or any substitute for tobacco, but not on vapor products, is six and six-tenths percent (6.6%)…

(a) (1) The tax imposed by this part shall be paid by the purchase of stamps from the commissioner of such design or denomination as may be prescribed by the commissioner, except that reconciliation payments of taxes on cigarettes made by cigarette rolling machine operators shall…

Any person who shall falsely and fraudulently make, forge, alter or counterfeit a stamp or stamps so prescribed by the commissioner, or who shall cause or procure to be falsely or fraudulently made, forged, altered, or counterfeited such stamps, or make, cause to be made, or atte…

(1) The commissioner is empowered to allow and make refunds for tobacco tax revenue stamps purchased from the commissioner or the commissioner's agent, upon submission of a written claim substantiated by such evidence as the commissioner may require to establish that:(1) The reve…

(a) For the purpose of compensating the dealer or distributor of tobacco products other than cigarettes in accounting for and remitting the tax and for the risk of loss and other expenses involved, the dealer shall be allowed two percent (2%) of the tax as the dealer's compensati…

The occupations, businesses and business transactions deemed privileges are to be taxed, and not pursued without license, and shall be such as are declared by this code or by legislative acts that are not to be deemed repealed by the enactment of this code.

(a) The supervision and collection of the tax imposed by this part shall be under the direction of the department. (b) The commissioner is granted full power and authority to adopt such reasonable rules and regulations not in conflict with this part, or other statute, as the comm…

(a) (1) The commissioner is authorized and empowered to prescribe the methods to be used by dealers and distributors in recording purchases and sales of tobacco products and purchases and consumption of tobacco tax stamps.(2) The commissioner is further authorized and empowered t…

(a) Every distributor or dealer shall permit the commissioner or the commissioner's authorized agent or representative to inspect at any time all tobacco products, invoices, books, papers and memoranda, including the general books, both operating and proprietary ledgers, and othe…

Any duly authorized representative, agent or employee of the department who has been designated by the commissioner to enforce this part is authorized and empowered to execute search warrants and do all acts incident to the search warrant, in the same manner as search warrants ma…

(a) Inspectors, agents, representatives or officers appointed by the commissioner shall be cloaked with and have the duty, power and authority as police officers to enforce this part and in the illegal traffic of unstamped tobacco products. (b) The highway patrol shall likewise h…

(a) Before engaging in the business of selling, distributing or handling tobacco products in this state, every person required to be licensed by this part shall obtain a license authorizing the person to engage in that business prior to the commencement of business. All persons c…

(a) (1) The commissioner may revoke any license issued under this part upon the failure of the licensee to pay the tax or taxes imposed by this part, or for the violation of any provision of this part or any rule or regulation promulgated by the commissioner under the authority v…

(a) The commissioner has the power to issue subpoenas in the name of the state of Tennessee requiring the attendance of such witnesses as may be designated in the subpoena at the place or places, at either the office of the commissioner at Nashville, or at any place in the county…

(a) All witness fees, mileage expenses and all fees of sheriffs for serving any notices or subpoenas shall be taxed as costs by the commissioner, the commissioner's authorized agent, representative or employee. (b) All costs and fees for witnesses and/or sheriffs shall be advance…

(a) (1) Except as otherwise provided in this part, any tobacco products that are required to have Tennessee revenue stamps affixed to the products, and that are found any place in this state without the proper stamps affixed to the tobacco products, or without applicable Tennesse…

(a) Such citizens of this state as are in indigent circumstances, and destitute of visible means of support, unable to procure a livelihood by manual labor, or disabled from labor by bodily injury of any description, may sell taxable articles without paying a tax. (b) The county …

(a) (1) All manufactured tobacco products upon which all applicable tobacco taxes have not been paid and that are or shall be owned or possessed by any person in avoidance, evasion or violation of any of the provisions of this part, are declared to be contraband goods and may be …

(a) In all cases of seizure of any tobacco products or other property subject to forfeiture under this part, the officer or other person making the seizure shall proceed as follows:(1) (A) Upon confiscation, or as soon thereafter as practicable, written notice shall be given by t…

Every person engaged in the activity within this state of billing, collecting for, distributing or selling tobacco products through the device, plan, scheme, or artifice commonly known as the “drop shipment plan or system” shall make a complete and itemized report, giving the nam…

Any common carrier transporting tobacco products to a point within this state who, for whatever reason, does not deliver to the consignee all of the tobacco products indicated on the bill of lading shall be liable for the tax imposed under this part on all nondelivered products, …

(a) (1) It is unlawful for any person to engage in the business of selling, distributing or handling tobacco products without the license required by this part, or after the license required by this part has been revoked, or for any person to violate any rule or regulation promul…

(a) All of the taxes on tobacco products, other than vapor products, collected under this part shall be applied in the following manner:(1) Four percent (4%) of the amount so collected shall be allowed as the expense for carrying out this part;(2) The amount of eighty-two thousan…

(a) For the purposes of this section, “package” means a pack, carton, or container of any kind in which cigarettes are offered for sale, sold, or otherwise distributed, or intended for distribution, to consumers. (b) No stamp may be affixed to, or made upon, any package of cigare…

(a) (1) The commissioner of revenue may issue to any tobacco distributor or wholesaler licensed pursuant to § 67-4-1015 a request for information about cigarette units sold in Tennessee.(2) Any tobacco distributor or wholesaler licensed pursuant to § 67-4-1015 shall comply with a…

(a) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the commissioner shall, upon request, disclose to the attorney general and reporter, or any attorney working under the attorney general and reporter's supervision and control, information obtained by the commissioner that is relevant t…

(a) As used in this section:(1) “Cigarette” has the same meaning as in § 47-31-102; and(2) “Person” means and includes every individual, partnership, firm, association, corporation, limited liability company, joint-stock company, state, political subdivision, Native American trib…

The county clerks shall collect all taxes on merchants, persons, companies, firms, corporations, agents, or traders, and all privileges, unless otherwise provided; and shall be subject to all the fines and penalties for failure to pay such taxes over to the commissioner of revenu…

(a) The commissioner is empowered and directed to refund the amount of any eligible bad debt credit incurred by a manufacturing distributor or wholesale dealer and jobber of tobacco products. No amount shall be refunded unless the debt has been found to be worthless and actually …

A tax shall be levied on the consumer of cigarettes produced through the use of a cigarette rolling machine at the rate imposed by § 67-4-1004, except that § 67-4-1004(b) shall not apply to such cigarettes. Such tax shall be reduced by the amount of state excise tax paid by the c…

(a) On and after October 1, 2013, no cigarette rolling machine operator shall:(1) Use, offer for use, or allow to be used in its cigarette rolling machines any tobacco other than roll-your-own tobacco that is currently listed on the directory maintained by the commissioner pursua…

(a) Prior to October 1, 2013, it is an offense for any person selling, leasing, or otherwise providing for use a cigarette rolling machine to fail to provide notice prior to the sale of the machine to the prospective purchaser, lessor, or user of such machine on a separate, writt…

(a) For purposes of this section, “timely filed premarket tobacco product application” means an application pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 387j for a vapor product containing nicotine derived from tobacco, marketed in the United States as of August 8, 2016, that was submitted to the Uni…

(a) A retailer, distributor, wholesaler, or importer who sells or offers for sale a vapor product for retail sale in this state shall not advertise or market, including paraphernalia, to an individual who is under twenty-one (21) years of age, including:(1) With names that resemb…

(a) Licenses for exercising all privileges for which license provisions are not otherwise made shall be issued on the applicant's paying to the clerk or other proper officer the specific tax laid on the license and the fees. (b) Except as otherwise specifically provided, it is la…

(a) Every person, partnership or corporation engaged in any mercantile or other business requiring a license to engage in business shall, in order to obtain such license, make application for license in writing to the county clerk, the application to be signed by each and every m…

(a) If any two (2) or more persons shall associate in any partnership or company, except incorporated companies, to engage in any mercantile or other business requiring a license, it shall be necessary, in order to obtain such license, to have the names of each and every member o…

(a) The right to sell goods or to exercise a privilege in any county for one (1) year, conferred upon the grantee of a license from the county clerk, may be used by the grantee in another county, or by a purchaser of the grantee's stock or trade of the grantee's business, or by a…

(a) It is the duty of the assessor to make a return to the county clerk of the name of each person engaged in any business liable in any way to pay a privilege tax, in each district or ward under the provisions of the law. (b) It is the duty of the county mayor and of the county …

(a) If any person presumes to sell goods or to exercise any privilege without obtaining the license prescribed, the clerk shall issue to the sheriff, or to any constable, a distress warrant commanding the sheriff or constable to levy, in case of a privilege, a tax double the high…

(a) The commissioner is authorized, and it is the commissioner's duty, to issue a distress warrant for the collection of the tax, interest and penalty due from each taxpayer who is delinquent in payment of privilege taxes, collectible by the commissioner. Distress warrants may be…

(1) As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:(1) “Commissioner” means the commissioner of revenue;(2) “Department” means the department of revenue;(3) “Person” includes:(A) Any private individual, corporation, partnership, firm, association, trust, estate, or o…

(a) The production by any person in connection with any business for profit, regardless of the form of such profit, of special nuclear material is declared to be a taxable privilege upon which each county and/or municipality in which the special nuclear material is produced may l…

The tax levied by this part shall be in addition to all other taxes, whether levied in the form of excise, license, or privilege taxes, and shall be in addition to all other fees and taxes levied.

(a) Administration and collection of the tax shall be by the department in the same manner as other taxes are collected by the state for and on behalf of municipal and county governments. (b) The commissioner may promulgate rules and regulations necessary and reasonable for the a…

(1) The rate of the tax levied pursuant to § 67-4-1102 shall be as follows:(1) The production of special nuclear material shall be taxed in the amount of thirty cents (30¢) for every separative work unit expended within a county of this state;(2) In addition to the amount of tax …