CA Judge Thinks Mike’s Hard Lemonade Should Pay “Beer Tax” Rates

image
From the Orange County Register:

A state appeals court has struck down a 1,550% increase in excise tax on certain flavored malt beverages such as hard lemonade, hard ice tea and Smirnoff Ice.

These beverages have some characteristics of beer and some of distilled spirits, the court noted.

The Board of Equalization in 2008 approved a $3.30 a gallon tax, up from 20 cents a gallon on flavored malt beverages at the urging of the California Friday Night Live Partnership, Students making a community Change and the California Youth Council.

Diageo-Guinness USA Inc. in Connecticut and the Flavored Malt Beverage Coalition sued to block the change, saying the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has exclusive power over sale and taxation of alcohol, not the Board of Equalization. A trial court previously sided with the board.

The appeals court ruled that the board's attempt to change the definition of "distilled spirits" did not withstand even the "relaxed scrutiny" that a court gives to quasi-legislative actions such as regulations.  Full details here.

About MyBeer Buzz

Founder, owner, author, graphic designer, CEO, CFO, webmaster, president, mechanic and janitor for mybeerbuzz.com. Producer and Co-host of the WILK Friday BeerBuzz live weekly craft beer radio show. Small craft-brewer of the craft beer news sites and one-man-band with way too many instruments to play........Copyright 2007-2024 mybeerbuzz.com All Rights Reserved: Use of this content on ANY site without written permission is not allowed.

0 comments (click to read or post):

Post a Comment

Please leave a comment...I do moderate each comment so it may not appear immediately...and please be nice! You can also comment using Disqus (below) or even comment directly on Facebook (bottom).