Federal Excise Tax Could Double for Brewers at End of Year
The 2017 Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA), which provided tax breaks for producers in the alcohol industry will sunset at the end of this year unless Congress votes to approve legislation to extend or make the reduced tax structure permanent.
In February of this year, Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act of 2019.
The CBMTRA will be heard by the Senate Finance and the Ways and Means committees, respectively, before being sent on to the Senate and House for a vote, and both the Senate and the House must pass it for the legislation to become permanent. The Senate version of the bill has 16 cosponsors, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. The House version has 14 cosponsors, also evenly split between parties. In an article in SevenFifty Daily, Rep. Kelly’s office says that the congressman “is working hard to make clear how important this bill is to his colleagues on both sides of the aisle,” adding that there are currently 43 Republicans and 39 Democrats in favor of the bill. To pass a bill by simple majority in the House, 218 votes in total are needed. Producers remain optimistic about the bill passing, but they’re still anxious to lock in votes.
