Of course it's a tax. Any Excise Tax is Bad Tax Policy Excise taxes are uniquely damaging to the economy and constitute bad tax policy. As we move toward a rational revenue system, our goal should be to eliminate all excise taxes, not add new ones at random. They are distortionary. An excise tax interferes with the rational allocation of goods and services by disrupting the price signals that link supply and demand.
Excise taxes are arbitrary .
Indeed, it is hard to find a more flagrant example of arbitrary taxation driven by the vagaries of special interest politics than the question at hand. All of it is politics, all of it is subject to annual change, much of it is subject to arbitrary interpretation by tax collection agencies, and none of it makes much sense. Excise taxes are not cost-efficient ways to raise revenue. Some studies estimate the total cost of collecting non-trust fund excise taxes that is, the smaller excise taxes is about the same as the revenue they bring in. The excise tax will be invisible to the taxpayer.