Bloomberg: On DC’s Chopping Block: Whiskey Other Tax Breaks

[Foreshot]

Quote

One provision would extend a reduction in excise taxes that craft brewers and distillers pay when they sell barrels of spirits such as whiskey or gin. One problem: About 95% of the $4.2 billion in revenue lost from the perk actually goes to large companies, said Adam Looney, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has researched the issue. Instead, many so-called craft whiskey producers actually purchase their whiskey from giant distillers and then slap their own labels on the bottled product, Looney said.

Margie A. S. Lehrman, chief executive officer of the American Craft Spirits Association, disputed Looney’s analysis and said that an extension of the tax break was an important goal for the trade association.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-13/on-dc-s-chopping-block-whiskey-racehorses-and-other-tax-breaks

[Huffy2k]

Uh oh...

[Silk City Distillers]

Perception and positioning.  Live or die.

[dhdunbar]

12 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

Perception and positioning.  Live or die.

Thanks James - I hadn't heard this phrase before and you sent me on a Google search -  Wikipedia augmented  by scholar is the way I go.  Okay - so it's why, when I approach TTB with a proposal or even a question, I try to know, in advance, more than they do about it and to frame it carefully in my way  before they have an opportunity to frame it first in theirs.  I want my way in the first position.  When they get to set their minds first and take a position, it is a lot harder to steer them to where I want them to go.

[Roger]

Sadly, it is entirely correct that the Tax Break primarily goes to millionaires and billionaires. It should have been stepped, 100% reduction for first 5000pg, 90% for the next 5000, then 10% less  reduction for each following 10,000 pg, until at full FET. 

DISCS and ACSA refused to sign onto any FET reduction legislation unless Big Liquor was rewarded. 

A stepped DSP FET reduction would have been a viable offset to the economy of scale provided by bulk producers. As if now stands it actually encourages BIG Liquor to push for the devleopment of more fake brands run by NDP's, putting more pressure on True Craft DSP's.