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PACT Act
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The federal Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, formerly known as the Jenkins Act, imposes registration and reporting requirements on anyone who sells:
- Cigarettes
- Roll-your-own (RYO)
- Smokeless tobacco
- Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS)
The PACT Act also requires delivery sellers to pay Minnesota excise tax and meet other payment obligations when they make delivery sales to consumers in Minnesota.
Note: If you sell PACT Act products to retailers in Minnesota that do not have a tobacco distributor license, you need to become a tobacco distributor and pay taxes applicable to distributors. Go to Cigarette and Tobacco Licensing for information on how to apply.
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ENDS products were added to the definition of a cigarette under the PACT Act effective March 28, 2021. Examples of ENDS products include, but are not limited to, e-cigarettes, e-hookah, vape pens, refillable vaporizers, and all liquids, components, and accessories for these devices. Nicotine solution products are ENDS products.
A delivery sale is any sale of cigarettes, ENDS, RYO, or smokeless tobacco to a consumer if any of the following is true:
- The consumer orders the product by telephone, other voice transmission, mail, internet, or other online service
- The seller is not physically present when the buyer purchases or receives the product
- The product is delivered to the buyer by common carrier, private delivery service, or other method of remote delivery
A delivery seller is a seller who makes a delivery sale.
Delivery sellers must comply with Minnesota laws and other requirements, including the requirement to pay the applicable excise tax.
Anyone who sells cigarettes, RYOs, smokeless tobacco, or ENDS into Minnesota must:
In addition, any seller who makes delivery sales must:
- File applicable cigarette and tobacco use tax returns and pay the applicable excise tax on cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, RYO, and nicotine solution products by the 18th of the month for the prior month’s activity
Anyone who sells PACT Act products into Minnesota must report the sales of smokeless tobacco, RYO, ENDS, and cigarette products by the 10th of each month for the prior month’s activity.
Use Our Templates and Virtual Room to File Reports
You must use the Excel templates we provide. The templates are specifically formatted for our system. If you do not use our templates, your file will be rejected. You can always find the most current templates dated here. The current templates are dated July 30.
After completing the templates, you must upload it in Virtual Room, a secure space online to exchange files with us.
To report sales of PACT Act products:
- Read the PACT Act Cigarette (PA-1) Instructions or PACT Act Tobacco ENDS (PA-2) Instructions.
- Enter data in all the required fields in the PACT Act Cigarette (PA-1) Excel Template or PACT Act Tobacco ENDS (PA-2) Excel Template, following the formatting requirements in the instructions.
- If you do not use correct formatting, your report may be rejected.
- Save your template as a .xlsx file type.
- Log in to Virtual Room.
- Upload your report into the correct room that corresponds with your report.
- The PA-1 Cigarette Excel report goes into the Cigarette PACT Act Reporting room.
- The PA-2 Tobacco ENDS Excel report goes into the Tobacco PACT Act Reporting room.
- Your file will be rejected if you upload it into the wrong room.
If you need to create a Virtual Room account, contact us at cigarette.tobacco@state.mn.us or 651-556-3035.
If you make delivery sales directly to consumers in Minnesota, complete the following forms and pay the applicable excise tax on smokeless tobacco, RYO, and nicotine solution products by the 18th of each month for the prior month’s activity:
Frequently Asked Questions
Check the Actions column in the Virtual Room Submitted File History page.
The errors will be listed in the Transmission Acknowledgment. In the Virtual Room Submitted Files History page:
- Select the Actions column drop-down.
- Select Download HTML File.
You will also receive an email notification about the rejection. If you do not see an email in your inbox, check your spam folder.
Data entered in the Reporting Period and Invoice End Date and Quantity fields are the most common errors.
- Format all dates using MM/DD/YYYY.
- For Quantity, enter only numbers. Do not include words after the number.
- Formatting issues also occur if you delete or change column headers and worksheet tabs.
