Congress passes Craft Beverage Tax Reform

Today, December 20th, 2017, marked the passing of some of the largest tax legislation in the last thirty years.  While this huge bill covered a wide range of tax reform, included in the new set of laws was the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, which effectively cut federal excise tax in half for small brewers.  Currently, the federal tax rate for malt beverages is $7 per brewer’s barrel (bbl) for the first 60,000 bbls produced by breweries that make less than 2 million bbls per year (long explanation, right?).  Once singed into law by the president, this act will reduce that tax to $3.50/bbl under the same conditions (starting January 1, 2018).

This is a huge win for the Brewers Association, the trade organization that represents over 4,000 members made up of small, independent American craft brewers.  By their estimation, this will generate $142 million dollars in annual savings for craft breweries.  That’s a pretty big number!  We just hope that means there’s that much more tasty beer to go around.

For more details, check out what the Brewers Association is saying about it.