California puts new tax on rechargeable batteries – including smart phones

Photo above - toxic danger alert! Lithium! Everything you see above, plus smart phones, watches, laptops, and tablets is an existential threat. To save the planet California will now tax them an extra 1.5%.

I can just imagine how the debate went in the California legislature. “Voters will go nuts if we raise taxes again. Income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, gasoline taxes, electric taxes, alcohol, wealth. What are we gonna do?”

A hand is raised in the back row. “We already tax smart phones when they’re first sold. Why not a new tax on the battery INSIDE the cell phone? just the battery. We can still keep applying the sales tax to the phone, as well.”

This is an imaginary legislative debate of course. But it’s exactly what happened. If you have a NON-removable battery in anything you buy, it now gets its own extra 1.5% tax. Cell phones. Smart watches. Laptops. Tablets. Wireless headphones. Google goggles. LED flashlights. Laser Pointers. Many home security cams. Desk fans . . . but rechargeable vapes are EXLUDED. Stop laughing. This is really true. See link below.

Okay . . . the list of what IS covered seems to be endless. Millions of people are going to go WTH!!!! as they make ordinary purchases in 2026.

California has come full circle now. From twisting everyone’s arm to go all-electric, and especially to buy EV cars, to taxing even the tiniest rechargeable batteries imaginable. Cognitive dissonance.

How much money will the state think it will collect from this scheme? I went to 4 websites and got 4 different estimates. Either nobody actually knows, or they’re lying.

Taxing batteries with a surcharge and claiming it’s due to dangerous lithium has nothing to do with saving mother earth, of course. It’s simply a grab for resident’s wallets.

I’m just sayin’ . .

New Year, New Surcharge, California Slaps Fee On Battery Gadgets