As you all know, passage of FET relief has been a priority for the American Craft Spirits Association since it’s inception. We are so excited to bring you announcements of two major steps forward in that initiative.
As we announced at the convention in Austin, DISCUS was strongly considering committing their full support to our excise tax reduction bill. Today that partnership was made official–ACSA and DISCUS will work together to pass this legislation! The strength of our combined resources and a unified industry message will make a huge difference in the chances of this bill’s success. We are so pleased to have this opportunity and look forward to working with DISCUS on the hill!
Joining us in this and other federal legislative efforts will be Jim Hyland of the Pennsylvania Avenue Group. Jim is an experienced lobbyist who has been kindly guiding us pro-bono for quite a while. ACSA has now officially enlisted Jim as our dedicated lobbyist on Capitol Hill. He will be setting up meetings, advising us, coordinating our efforts, and generally guiding us through the shark infested waters that are DC politics. Welcome to the team Jim!!
Those are the major announcements, and now here are the nitty-gritty details: The structure of the bill that ACSA and DISCUS are committed to supporting has been modified from what was presented in Austin two include an additional component. The small production FET rate of $2.70 per proof gallon on the first 100,000 gallons is still in place, and a modification of the overall from FET rate to $9.00 on all spirits above the 100,000 gallon threshold has been added. We believe this combined bill represents our best possible chance of passing the component that is most important to most of us–the $2.70 rate for the first 100,000 PG. It is understood by all that this is unlikely to be the final structure of the bill after it passes through legislative negotiations, but starting from this point gives us the best chance of passing a reduction for small producers and of preventing an increase in the tax that could potentially impact all of us.
If you have any questions about this effort, please feel free to reach out to the legislative committee and/or any of your representatives on the board.
