More beer tax proposed as if you didn't pay enough taxes

Hidden tax in beer is out of sight and wallet

Taxes are on everyone’s mind today.  It’s tax day.  Reason enough to go seek pleasure with a friendly glass of your favorite beer – AND PAY MORE TAXES.

Beer tax facts.  Did you know…

• The total amount of excise taxes paid on beer exceeds the total amount of profit in the brewing industry, with the total federal, state and local tax burden constituting 40.8% of the retail price of beer (compared to 24.2% of the retail price of all other purchases in the U.S.).
• In order to pay for a state excise tax increase of “only” $1 a case” beer drinkers need to actually earn $2.70 !  Assume you are in the 25% federal income tax bracket and you pay about 7% in social security, about 1.5% in Medicare and let’s assume 4% in state income taxes.  That all comes to 37.5% of your paycheck going to income related taxes.  State sales tax on that $1 increase?  That’s extra !

Even so, the Wisconsin based Superior Telegram reports “Majority of Wisconsinites support higher beer tax. ”  The first paragraph leads off with “A poll released by the U-W Health system suggests a majority of Wisconsin voters would support raising the state's beer tax.”   The last paragraph ends with “U-W Health did not release details on the party affiliations of those polled. So there’s no way to tell whether the survey questioned more Democrats or Republicans.”   I’m wondering who was polled.   Were those polled beer drinkers.   Don’t forget there are over 90,000,000 of them in the U.S. and they vote.  A headline lead like this makes me wonder a lot?

As of month end March:

• In Florida a State Senator has proposed a new tax on beer to fund summer job programs for teens.  The tax would be approximately the equivalent of a nickel a six-pack.
• In Indiana House Bill 1604 proposes to double the beer tax from 11.5 to 23 cents per gallon.
• In Nevada A.B. 277 seeks to raise alcohol excise taxes, with the malt beverage tax increasing from 16 to 69 cents per gallon.
• In New York the budget passed by the legislature includes an increase of the beer excise tax from 11 cents to 24 cents a gallon.
• In North Carolina Governor Purdue has proposed a 5% surcharge on alcohol sales to help meet the state’s budget shortfall.
• In Oregon House Bill 3407 removes the prohibition against local government enactment of taxes on alcoholic beverages.

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Also see:

How much do you really pay for that beer?

State by state access to the beer  you like

Proposed state beer tax increases hard to swallow - impacting jobs and beer drinkers