Fauquier County, VA Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

County Code § 8-181, part of the Northern Virginia Cigarette Tax Board (NVCTB) article adopted by Ord. No. 21-8 on October 14, 2021, governs retail cigarette sales in the unincorporated county. A retail dealer selling, storing, or offering cigarettes for sale must purchase them only from "registered agents" that supply the business's trade name and address, and cigarettes purchased for personal use cannot be diverted into a store's resale stock (§ 8-181(a)). Cigarettes must be purchased and stored separately for each business location, and purchase invoices or receipts must be retained for three years and kept at the retail location for one year, available to NVCTB agents on request (§ 8-181(a)).

A dealer who cannot produce those records may have cigarettes confiscated until they are reviewed (§ 8-181(a)). Retail dealers must also open their place of business to inspection by tobacco revenue agents so the county can confirm every package carries the required NVCTB tax stamp under the excise tax levied at 40 cents per pack of twenty cigarettes (§§ 8-178, 8-181(b)). Cigarettes found without the stamp, or without proof the jurisdictional tax was paid, are subject to seizure as contraband (§ 8-182). This is a cigarette-tax licensing and inspection regime; the code contains no separate county license or zoning requirement specific to vape or e-cigarette retailers.