UPS, FedEx Oppose Legislation on Taxes for Cigarette Cargoes

ackage delivery services UPS and FedEx are trying to head off legislation pending in Congress that would make them responsible for helping states collect excise taxes on cigarettes sold by Internet and mail order.

Both the House version of the legislation, being considered by the House Judiciary Committee, and the Senate bill, which was passed late last year, would require delivery services to report deliveries of — and possibly to collect local excise taxes for — cigarettes ordered over the Internet.

“We don’t want to be placed in the position where we are an enforcement agency or a tax collector,” said David Bolger, a UPS spokesman in Washington, D.C.

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