USA, OH: House bill could encourage small brewery expansions

Ohio small breweries would get a tax break for the first 2 mln barrels of beer they produce each year under a bill introduced last week in the U.S. House of Representatives, bizjournals.com reported on February, 8.

If the new bill - introduced by Reps. Jim Gerlach, R-Pa. and Richard Neal, D-Mass. - were to become law, brewers who produce 6 mln or fewer barrels a year would pay $3.50 per barrel on their first 60,000 barrels, $16 for each barrel between 60,001 and 2 mln, and $18 for every barrel thereafter.

Under current federal law, brewers who produce fewer than 2 mln barrels of beer per year pay tax of $7 a barrel on their first 60,000 barrels and $18 a barrel on every barrel thereafter.

Bills similar to the Small BREW (Brewers Reinvestment and Expanding Workforce) Act have been introduced for the past four years and have made no progress toward law. But supporters haven’t given up hope in what many call a craft-beer stimulus bill, despite the call for Congress to raise taxes while it’s cutting spending in the coming months.

According to stats compiled by the Oregon Brewers Guild, Portland has more breweries than any city in the world, with 51, and the state ranks in the top three nationally on a number of measures, including the number of breweries (with about 166 in 60 cities), craft beer production and consumption, and the percent of draft beer consumed.

Those numbers are expected to increase as more breweries open.

13 February, 2013