NRA isn’t the only one carving out exemptions for itself. Boston Beer company is getting in the game too:
I would be in favor of the proposal to lower taxes on craft breweries, but I see no reason to create a law that would give Boston Beer a tax advantage until they grow to three times their present size. The idea is to encourage small craft breweries. Once you hit two million barrels, you ain’t small no more. Take it on the chin, Jim, and pay Uncle Sam the full tab. You can afford it.
Hat tip to Liquidity Preference. Personally, I don’t like the idea of special tax statuses at all, even if it’s just for actual craft brewers. But I can also understand small brewers trying to get any leg up they can. The big brewers and distributors have a mega-powerful lobby in DC and state capitols that tailors liquor laws to benefit themselves. It’s regulatory capture at its finest.
This is a typical example of The Chicago Machine at work, leveraging access to an arbitrary set of ever-changing and expensive requirements.
Um, I think you mean Boston Machine. It’s a Boston company seeking and proposing the change.
With a Boston and Idaho senator backing it. But you know, it’s all Obama’s fault.
Sebastian, as to the question of tax breaks for small breweries, the argument I’d make is that economies of scale give the multinational beer companies an enormous advantage. Couple that with their influence over beer distributorships, and small breweries find themselves in a difficult spot. If you like to see diversity on the grocery shelves and in your local pub, trying to level the playing field by offering the little guy a tax cut isn’t a bad way to go.