American Craft Brewers Lobby Congress For Critical Tax Relief

Never has tax relief been more important to US brewers and hopefully this year’s virtual Hill Climb doesn’t end up being “a hill too far” for legislators…

Here’s the deal…

The Hill Climb is an annual lobbying effort overseen by the Brewers Association. Brewers would make the trek to Washington and personally meet with their state representatives to advocate for legislation that would benefit the craft brewing

Usually this event would coincide with another large scale gathering put on by the Boulder, Colorado-based trade organization, sometimes the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) and more times SAVOR.

But like so many events in this age of COVID-19, both the CBC and SAVOR were cancelled this year and the annual advocacy effort by hundreds of brewing professionals was forced to take place virtually this week…

And with many of the nation’s nearly 8,300 craft breweries struggling thanks to state mandated bar, taproom and restaurant shutdown that have decimated draft and on-premise sales, this year’s effort to influence legislation has never been more important.

At issue is making the current federal excise tax (FET) rates permanent before they sunset in December.

Those rates, were recalibrated lower in 2018, and extended in December 2019

That extension kept in place the $3.50 per barrel FET rate on the first 60,000 barrels for domestic brewers producing fewer than 2 million barrels annually…Almost half the original $7 per barrel tax that brewers were saddled with in 2016.

“The lower FET rates have benefitted small and independent brewers in all 50 states and nearly every congressional district,” said Bob Pease, president and CEO, Brewers Association. “These savings empowered brewers to reinvest in their businesses and resulted in an annual tax savings of more than $80 million.”

And thanks to those recalibrated rates, American brewers were able to reinvest in their businesses creating new jobs*, expanding their operations and improving employee benefits.

In addition to advocating for making current FET rates permanent, brewers, many with breweries already on life-support thanks to the impact of the coronavirus, also asked representatives for additional pandemic relief to help them survive the lingering lockdowns…

 

*According to the Brewers Association “craft brewing jobs grew by 15,000 in 2018 to more than 150,000 nationally—the largest job increase on record for small brewers”