After days of drama on Capitol Hill, the year-end legislative package that includes the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA) was signed into law making the existing federal excise tax rates for small and independent breweries permanent.
“Securing permanent federal excise tax recalibration for small brewers has been a top priority for the Brewers Association since 2009,” the association stated in a press release. The temporary lower rates were due to expire on December 31 unless Congress extended them or made them permanent.
The legislation will make the federal excise tax rate of $3.50 per barrel permanent on the first 60,000 barrels and $16 on all subsequent barrels for domestic brewers producing fewer than 2 million barrels annually. It will also preserve the federal excise tax rate of $16 per barrel on the first 6 million barrels for all other brewers and all beer importers.
See the BA statement here.