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Vaping Products Duty starts on 1 October: the rate, the stamp and three dates
A flat £2.20 per 10 ml from 1 October 2026, a duty stamp on every liable unit, and a sell-through window for old stock that closes on 31 March 2027.
Vaping Products Duty commences on 1 October 2026. HMRC’s guidance on paying the duty sets the rate at a flat £2.20 per 10 ml of vaping liquid — 22p per millilitre — with duty payments due by the 15th of each month. The charge is on volume of liquid, and it does not step up or down with nicotine strength.
Six weeks out, the harder part for the trade is not the rate. It is that three separate dates sit behind it, and they are being reported as though they were one.
1 October 2026
The duty applies. Per HMRC’s guidance for businesses handling vaping products at wholesale or retail, every liable product released onto the UK market from that date must also carry a vaping duty stamp, which HMRC describes as 42 mm long and 18 mm wide, carrying security features and a scannable code.
Separately, HMRC’s internal manual on the duty and the stamps scheme records that approval applications opened on 1 April 2026, and states that a person not approved by 1 October 2026 cannot legally manufacture vaping products in the UK. That is an approval deadline rather than a stock deadline, and it falls on manufacturers rather than on shops.
31 March 2027
Stock produced or imported before 1 October 2026 may still be stored and sold unstamped up to this date, per the same HMRC guidance. That window is the only reason unstamped product will lawfully sit on a shelf after commencement.
1 April 2027
From this date, HMRC’s guidance states that all vaping products outside duty suspension must be stamped. Unstamped stock does not become discounted stock; it becomes unsellable.
On prices, and on what the stamp is
We are not publishing a consumer price projection. The duty is a fixed amount per millilitre paid upstream; how much of it appears on a shelf label is a commercial decision by manufacturers and retailers, not something HMRC sets, and any figure quoted before October is an estimate.
The stamp is worth a plainer note. A security-featured, scannable label on each liable unit gives enforcement a check that does not depend on reading the packaging. Whether it shifts illicit supply is a question for published enforcement data afterwards, not a claim to make now.
The next scheduled change after the duty is the advertising and sponsorship regime, which we covered separately when the commencement timetable was published.
None of this alters what the products are. Nicotine is addictive, UK sale is restricted to over-18s, and we write for adults who already use it or who are weighing a move away from cigarettes — not for anyone else.