Sen. Chris Murphy pledged his support for a bill that would allow small brewing operations to pay a reduced tax rate on beer produced or imported into the U.S.
The Small Brewer Reinvestment and Expanding Workforce (BREW) Act would specifically reduce the excise tax on beer produced or brought into the U.S. by small brewers, which are defined as those that produce no more than 6 million barrels of beer annually.
Currently, breweries of that size pay $7 per barrel in excise taxes on the first 60,000 barrels produced, and $18 per barrel on every one produced thereafter.
If passed, the BREW Act would allow eligible breweries to pay a reduced rate of $3.50 per barrel on the first 60,000 produced and $16 per barrel on the next 1.94 million produced.
Murphy said the changes would return as much as $67 million a year back to small brewing operations nationwide.
“These breweries are small businesses that have become real drivers of local economies across the country, and we need to support their efforts to hire workers, increase production and boost local economies,” Murphy, a Democrat, said in a May 16 statement. The BREW Act was introduced earlier this month in conjunction with the American Craft Beer Week.
