Ohio Craft Breweries Earn Excise Tax Reduction
Small businesses plan to reinvest savings into growth and jobs.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A two-year version of the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA), which lowers the federal excise tax for breweries, was passed on December 20th, 2017 by the 115th U.S. Congress.
Under the bill, domestic craft breweries producing less than two million barrels annually would see the federal excise tax reduced to $3.50/barrel (from $7/barrel) on the first 60,000 barrels. This savings will allow Ohio’s 257 small brewers to reinvest in their businesses, expand their operations and hire more workers. The legislation is currently written as a two-year provision.
“The CBMTRA provisions will make a real-world bottom line difference for every size brewery in the state of Ohio,” said Collin Castore, president of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association and co-owner of Seventh Son Brewing Company. “Breweries will continue to pay all the regular state, local, and federal taxes that every business pays. The excise tax reduction of $3.50 per barrel will save large and small breweries thousands of dollars each year. In the brewery business, that usually means those dollars can be put towards growth; and growth means Ohio manufacturing/brewing jobs and more great Ohio beer.”
The effort to bring meaningful federal excise tax relief to small brewers has been a primary political objective for the Brewers Association and state guilds from across the country for almost 10 years.
“Our expectation is that small brewers will use their savings related to the recalibration of the federal excise tax on beer to invest in their breweries, expand their operations, create more jobs and hire more American workers,” said Bob Pease, president and CEO, Brewers Association. “We are very appreciative that Congress has enacted these bipartisan, strongly supported measures.”
Currently, the craft brewing industry is responsible for $2.67 billion in impact to the Ohio economy and Ohio craft brewers employ over 4,000 workers.
“We’d like to thank Senators Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown, as well as the entire Ohio Congressional delegation for co-sponsoring CBMTRA,” said Mary MacDonald, executive director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association. “Their support will help Ohio’s small and independent brewers continue to grow and thrive, and we look forward to their continued support in our efforts to make the excise tax reductions permanent in future tax legislation.”
CBMTRA enjoyed wide bi-partisan support in Congress, counting 303 co-sponsors in the House and 54 in the Senate. Senator Portman offered the amendment to include the CBMTRA provisions to the tax bill passed Wednesday.
“The Brewers Association along with the Ohio Craft Brewers Association, other state guilds, and countless individual brewers’ voices were loud and were unified and were heard,” Castore said. “We made CBMTRA literally the most widely supported bi-partisan piece of legislation to pass through Congress in the last several years. Our Ohio Senators are proud and supportive of Ohio craft beer and were instrumental in finally getting CBMTRA attached to a piece of legislation.”
Founded in 2007, the Ohio Craft Brewers Association is a nonprofit guild that exists to promote and preserve Ohio’s unified craft brewing industry. We aspire to be recognized as the industry leader at both state and national levels for preserving the art of making high-quality, unique craft beer; to serve as the unified voice for craft brewers across the state; to advocate on behalf of the Ohio Craft beer industry; to contribute to systemic, local community development by driving economic and job growth, while creating experiences that bring people together; and to serve as a beacon for local production and manufacturing through craft beer, resulting in diverse choices for consumers.