Senators John Kerry (D-Massachusetts)& Mike Crapo (R- Idaho) have officially introduced the BEER Act, that would lower the beer excise tax on small brewers in America. BEER stands for Brewer’s Employment & Excise Relief.
What You Need To Know:
The BEER Act aims to create close to 1,600 jobs in the small brewing industry. There are close to 100,000 jobs already in craft brewing. The senators have met with breweries in their respective states discussing finances, supply & demand, taxation etc. Introducing this beer will keep the industry thriving in rough economic times. Small brewers incur higher costs for production, raw materials, & packaging than the large breweries, and multi-national competitors. The BEER Act also stimulates barley, wheat, & hop growers.
Current Tax Structure:
– If the small brewery produces less than 2 million barrels, the excise tax is $7 a barrel on the first 60,000 barrels
– Over 60,000, excise tax is $18 a barrel.
Proposed Tax Structure:
– Reduces the excise tax from $7 to $3.50. The difference gives small breweries an estimated $19.9 Million for expansion & employment.
– Excise tax for barrel production from 60,000 barrels t0 2 million barrels would be lowered to $16 a barrel. An addition of $27.1 million for growth & development.
The current tax structure and legislation has not been updated since 1976. Read on for the full press release
AJC reported a little update on Sunday Sales today. Bills in the house and senate are still stuck AND there are a lot of piece of important legislation. Perhaps by the end of the session.
Dissecting the opposition to the Sunday sales bill in Georgia requires talking about this individual – Jerry Luguire. Luguire is the president of Georgia’s Christian Coalition, backed by the Georgia Baptist Convention. He leads the charge against the passage of Continue Reading →
Today at 12 noon, supporters of S.B. 10 aka Sunday sales bill will rally at the capitol building in downtown Atlanta. Last week, the bill was not brought to a vote due to “lack of support”. Special interest groups have Continue Reading →
Last week Surly Brewing (Brooklyn Center, MN) announced that in their 5th year, they plan to expand big time. Great news for beer lovers in Minnesota and far.
As if it weren’t hard enough to be a successful craft brewer, and then raise the massive amounts of money to expand your brewery – the government has silly laws that stifle your growth and your industry. Surly Brewing even came out and said that they would do anything they could to work with lawmakers to make this new venture successful. Lawmakers however, basically retorted with – go build somewhere else. So Surly is asking for you the beer drinker’s help.
What a week! The news that we are planning to build a new destination brewery has had an amazing response. The ranks of the Surly Nation have grown and we are humbled by all of your encouragement. THANK YOU.
But as you know, not quite everybody is in favor of what we want to do. The bill has not yet been introduced but already there is stiff opposition, with some people telling us we should go to another state and build. We don’t see that as an option right now so we need YOUR help!