Tennessee has the nation’s highest tax on beer, and it’s stifling the growth of the state’s fledgling craft-brewing industry, say leaders of the state’s malt-beverage brewers and wholesalers.To help correct that, they’re supporting a bill expected to be filed in the General Assembly this week to restructure the tax, although they say the changes won’t lower the tax — or even improve the state’s highest-tax ranking.
Instead, the bill would alter the complex method used to determine how much tax a brewer must pay on wholesale deliveries of suds in Tennessee. The proposed legislation would change it from a price-based formula to a charge based on the volume of beer sold.
As the law stands, the state collects a 17 percent tax on the price of beer sold to wholesalers, but under the proposed change, there instead would be a flat tax charged per “barrel” of beer sold (31 gallons), said Rich Foge, president of the Tennessee Malt Beverage Association.
