Smuggled Tobacco Prevention Act of 2004

Bill: 108-s-2642
Sponsor: Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR]
Introduced: 2004-07-13 in the Senate
Policy area: Taxation
Subjects: Accounting
Administrative procedure
Administrative remedies
Agriculture and Food
Agriculture in foreign trade
Business records
Cigarettes
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Civil actions and liability
Commerce
Crime and Law Enforcement
Damages
Department of Labor
Department of the Treasury
Disciplining of employees
Discrimination in employment
Dismissal of employees
Drug abuse
Employee rights
Evidence (Law)
Ex-offenders
Export controls
Finance and Financial Sector
Fines (Penalties)
Foreign Trade and International Finance
Forfeiture
Fraud
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Grievance procedures
Identification devices
Indian lands
International Affairs
International cooperation
Labeling
Labor and Employment
Law
Legal fees
Licenses
Limitation of actions
Minorities
Native Americans
Packaging
Retail trade
Searches and seizures
Smokeless tobacco
Smuggling
State taxation
Surety and fidelity
Tax treaties
Tobacco
Tobacco exports
Tobacco industry
Tobacco tax
Wage restitution
Whistle blowing
Wholesale trade

Summary:
action_date: 2004-07-13
text: 
Smuggled Tobacco Prevention Act of 2004 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to require all packages of tobacco products to carry a unique legibly printed serial number by which the Secretary of the Treasury can identify the manufacturer or importer and the location and date of manufacture or importation. Requires tobacco products sold on Indian reservations to be labeled as such. 
Requires a person to post a bond with the Secretary in order to export tobacco products. Requires a tobacco wholesaler to have a permit and to maintain certain records. 
Requires export warehouse proprietors to file certain reports with the Secretary. Authorizes the Secretary to enter into certain tobacco related information exchange agreements with foreign countries. 
Establishes new criminal offenses relating to the distribution of tobacco products. 
Raises the $1,000 civil penalty for violations relating to tobacco products to $10,000. 
Amends the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act to: (1) expand the applicability of such Act from cigarettes only to tobacco products (cigars, cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, pipe tobacco, and roll-your-own tobacco); (2) define a "contraband tobacco product" as a quantity of tobacco product that is equivalent to or more than 2,000 cigarettes (currently, 60,000) which bear no evidence of the payment of applicable State tobacco taxes and that is possessed illegally; and (3) establish new unlawful acts. 
Allows a State tobacco tax authority to bring a civil action in U.S. district court for the collection of State cigarette taxes. 
 
Prohibits retaliation against employees (whistleblowers) who provide information in contraband tobacco cases. Provides for administrative and judicial remedies for such whistleblowers.

Legislative actions:
action_date: 2004-07-13
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S8032-8034)
action_date: 2004-07-13
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S8032)
action_date: 2004-07-13
text: Introduced in Senate