Spring Breaks and Cigarette Tax Noncompliance: Evidence From a New York City College Sample

Estimate cigarette tax noncompliance (tax avoidance and evasion) before and after mid-semester recesses in a New York City college campus, where the majority of students are residents of nearby lower-tax states, using data derived from garbology, an archaeological method that reconstructs patterns of human behavior from discarded materials.

We systematically divided the college campus into four geographic areas and established a total of 12 transects (survey lines) and five quadrats (survey spheres) in those areas to encompass 74 outdoor trash cans. Weekly collections of discarded cigarette packs (n = 174) in the four areas during Spring 2012 and 2013 were conducted to quantify the percentage of cigarette packs that were tax noncompliant.

Overall, we find that 72.4% of the cigarette packs collected in Spring 2012 and 2013 did not bear the required joint New York City and New York State tax stamp. Additionally, we find that cigarette tax avoidance significantly increased after recesses (mid-March and early April) in Spring 2012 and subsequently declined. We also find that packs with a Virginia tax stamp became more prevalent as time elapsed after each recess.

College students practice tax avoidance, drawing on legal purchases from their own home states as the primary source of cheap cigarettes. As stocks decline, some students shift to tax evasion by illegally purchasing cigarettes in New York City that have been bootlegged from low tax states (eg, Virginia).

Our study adds to the growing literature on cigarette tax noncompliance (ie, tax avoidance and evasion). First, we provide evidence that college students in our New York City sample avoid the payment of taxes in high tax states by purchasing low taxed cigarettes in their home state. Second, we find that once those sources are depleted, students find access to the black market nearby campus. This black market functions through cigarette tax evasion: the resale of cigarettes purchased in low tax states. Our study suggests that institutions of higher education operating in states with high cigarette taxes and a student body that resides in lower tax states should increase cessation services prior to breaks to discourage bulk purchases of cheap cigarettes.