Chapter 24
TOBACCO TAX STAMPS
Circular Letter No,  530 of  the Collector of Internal  Revenue,  dated December 22,   1915,  detailed the rates of taxation on tobacco products which were to be In force from January l, 1916,  and then provided: "Immediate requisition will be made by provisional  treasurers in provinces in which there are tobacco factories, for internal revenue strip stamps showing the new rate. Promptly after the thirty-first  of December, all stamps for which  there is no demand  will be returned to  this office."

It is  to be noted that the only change in the tobacco  tax stamps  on January 1,  1916, was the retirement on that date of the stamps which had been surcharged "P6.00 Per M”  in 1915 for cigars  whose wholesale price per thousand was “P20.00 or less" and  the rest of the stamps originally issued in 1914 for cigars taxed at P2.00 and at P4.00 per thousand,    The stamps which had been surcharged “P6.00 per M” in 1915 for cigars whose wholesale price per thousand was more than P20 but not more than P50, were of the same denominations as stamps required for cigars whose wholesale price per thousand was “more than P50.” Since cigars of the latter class continued to be taxed at the rate of P6.00 per M, the sdurcharged stamps whose denominations were suitable for this class of cigars could continue to be used until the supply was exhausted. Since there was no change on January 1, 1916, in the rates of taxation on smoking tobacco and cigarettes, it is presumed that the stamps surcharged in 1915 for smoking tobacco and cigarettes remained in use until the supply was exhausted. New stamps of the required rates and denominations were then, of course, issued. In the case of chewing tobacco, there had been no change in the rate of taxation which were in force in 1914. Hence, Chewing Tobacco stamps of the issue of 1914 remained in use.

Regulations No. 4 of the Department of Finance, promulgated on June 28, 1916, superceded the instructions contained in Circular Letter No. 460 of August 1, 1914, concerning the use of tobacco stamps. Section 5, in part, as follows:
 
 

Section 5. “…The payment of the specific taxes imposed by the Internal Revenue law upon products of tobacco manufactured or produced in the Philippine Islands for sale or consumption herein shall be denoted and made by the affixture and cancellation of an internal revenue stamp of the proper value and denomination to each and every original package of cigars, cigarettes, smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco, or other manufactured tobacco, immediately before removal from the place of manufacture or production. The actual time of payment of said taxes shall be the time when the stamps are cancelled.”

a)  DENOMINATIONS AND CLASS OF STAMPS. – these internal revenue stamps, which will be printed by the Collector of Internal Revenue and sold to manufacturers in lots of not less than one hundred stamps, will be prepared in the following denominations:
(1) For affixture to boxes of cigars containing 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 100, 200, 300 and 500 cigars to the box;
(2)
a		 For affixture to boxes of cigarettes of the class weighing not more than two kilograms per thousand, containing 100, 200 and 500 cigarettes to the box;
(3)
a
a
a		 For affixture to bundles of cigarettes of the class weighing not more than two kilograms per thousand, containing 25 packages to the bundle, each package containing 10, 20, 24, 25, 28, 29, or 30 cigarettes; and to bundles containing 20 packages to the bundle, each package containing 25 cigarettes; and to bundles containing 5 packages to the bundle, each package containing 30 cigarettes;
(4)
a		 For affixture to bundles of cigarettes of the class weighing more than two kilograms per thousand, containing 25 packages to the bundle, each package containing 24 cigarettes – a total of 600 cigarettes to the bundle;
(5)
a		 For affixture to packages of smoking tobacco containing 50, 100, 125, 250,,450 and 500 grams to the package;
(6) For affixture to packages of chewing tobacco containing 50, 100 and 200 grams to the package.”

It is to be noted that Regulations No. 4 did not specify exactly what denominations of stamps were to be issued for each of the three classes of cigars. But the stamps which were in use in 1938 for each of the three classes of cigars were for affixture to boxes containing exactly the same number of cigars as prescribed by Circular Letter No. 460 of August 1, 1914, with one exception. This exception was the addition of a stamp for affixture to a box of 25 cigars of the class taxed at the lowest rate. It has not been possible to determine the date on which this cigar stamp was first issued, but it may have been issued as early as 1916.

Paragraph (a), (2), Section 5, of Regulations No. 4 omitted the stamp for the box containing 250 cigarettes provided by Circular Letter No. 460, and added a stamp for a box containing 500 cigarettes. Circular Letter No. 460 had, however, a stamp for a bundle of 500 cigarettes of the same class. Since this stamp could be affixed to a box, as well as to a bundle, a new stamp was not required for the box of 500 cigarettes.

For cigarettes put up in bundles, for smoking and chewing tobacco, stamps were provided by Regulations No. 4 for affixture to packages of tobacco containing exactly the same quantities of tobacco as has been provided by Circular Letter No. 460.

Act 2835, which became effective on March 8, 1919, provided that cigarettes should be divided, in accordance with the wholesale price per thousand, into three classes which were taxed at the rate of P1.20, P1.60 and P2.00 respectively, per thousand. Stamps for the P1.20 and P2.00 classes had already been provided by Regulations No. 4. Hence, it was necessary in 1919  to issue a new series of stamps for only the P1.60 class. It has not been possible to find any record of the denominations of the stamps which were issued in 1919 for affixture to bundles of cigarettes of the P1.60 class. But it is possible that there were issued at that time stamps for affixture to bundles containing 100, 250, 500, 600, 625 and 750 cigarettes each, respectively.