{"id":2634,"date":"2010-05-14T09:30:10","date_gmt":"2010-05-14T13:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.2beerguys.com\/blog\/?p=2634"},"modified":"2010-05-13T23:13:59","modified_gmt":"2010-05-14T03:13:59","slug":"john_kerry_beer_tax_proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/14\/john_kerry_beer_tax_proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator proposes to lower the taxes on beer for smaller breweries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>WOW.  Very interesting tax news for small breweries.  I heard about this news yesterday on the Fox 25 morning show and I wanted to share this story&#8230;  I wonder if the Mass Brewers Guild was influential in this decision &#8211; I imagine that they helped.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sean<br \/> 2Beerguys.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Drink Craft Beer, You&#8217;ve Earned It<\/strong><br \/> <em><br \/> This article was posted on the Boston Herald on May 13th.<br \/> <\/em><br \/> <strong>Small brewers toast Sen. John Kerry\u2019s beer-tax plan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>By Jay Fitzgerald &#8211; Thursday, May 13, 2010<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Boston Beer Co. and Harpoon Brewery are raising pints to Sen. John Kerry\u2019s call to lower federal taxes on suds makers.<\/p>\n<p>Kerry, a member of the Senate\u2019s Small Business Committee, is co-sponsoring new legislation that would cut the excise tax for brewers who make less than 2 million barrels of beer a year. The bill would benefit some 1,500 small beer makers nationwide, including 40 in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n<p>The excise tax cuts are needed to help create jobs and to keep smaller breweries competitive with larger rivals, Kerry said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMassachusetts started the small craft-beer revolution, and we\u2019re proud of it,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cSmall and independent brewers are vital small businesses in our state, and relieving their tax burden will help them keep hiring and expanding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jim Koch, founder of Sam Adams brewer Boston Beer, and Dan Kenary, president of Boston\u2019s Harpoon Brewery, are toasting the tax-cut idea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re obviously delighted,\u201d said Kenary, whose company produces about 135,000 barrels of beer a year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will help us grow and provide jobs in Massachusetts,\u201d said Koch, whose company is the largest small brewer, producing about 2 million gallons of suds a year.<\/p>\n<p>Massachusetts lawmakers recently slapped the state\u2019s 6.25 sales tax on retail alcohol sales, on top of a previous wholesale tax. Liquor-store owners and beer makers say the state tax hike has harmed their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Kerry\u2019s bill would lower the federal excise tax to $3.50 from $7 per barrel for the first 60,000 barrels made by a small brewer, while lowering the tax from $18 to $16 for the the next 60,000 to 2 million barrels.<\/p>\n<p><a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/www.bostonherald.com\/business\/general\/view\/20100513small_brewers_toast_sen_john_kerrys_beer-tax_plan\/srvc=home&amp;position=recent');\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/business\/general\/view\/20100513small_brewers_toast_sen_john_kerrys_beer-tax_plan\/srvc=home&amp;position=recent\">Link to original article.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WOW. Very interesting tax news for small breweries. I heard about this news yesterday on the Fox 25 morning show and I wanted to share this story&#8230; I wonder if the Mass Brewers Guild was influential in this decision &#8211; I imagine that they helped. Enjoy Sean 2Beerguys.com Drink Craft Beer, You&#8217;ve Earned It This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,20],"tags":[1081,1082,610],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2634"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2637,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions\/2637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}