Bourbon distillers face big tax bills and higher tariffs after a record year for production

[Klaralven]

WASHINGTON – For the first time there are more than 10 million barrels of bourbon aging across Kentucky, and distillers set records by filling nearly 2.5 million barrels in a single year.

That all sounds like a triumph for America’s native whiskey. Yet bourbon producers are contending with trade fights that hurt sales and a pandemic that is hampering tourism. Bigger tariffs are in store later this year.

There’s also a hefty, one-of-a-kind tax bill due.

Distillers in Kentucky are slated to pay more than $33 million in aging barrel taxes in 2021 alone. That figure is 140% higher than it was 10 years ago.

“This is truly a historic and landmark record but that milestone comes with a cost,” Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, said about the record production and tax rates. Because bourbon-aging barrels are considered property, they are subject to property tax in Kentucky, Gregory said.

“Every year that barrel ages, it is taxed again and again and again and again,” he said. “If you’re drinking a bottle of 18-year-old Elijah Craig, that whiskey from that barrel had been taxed 18 times before it was bottled.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/06/bourbon-distillers-face-tax-bills-higher-tariffs-after-record-year-for-production.html

When you are drinking bourbon, you just might be supporting Mitch's state.

[Hoyt]

1. Love bourbon. But bourbon doesn't have to come from McConnell's state.

Here is just one link with suggestions, these are many others.

https://distiller.com/articles/bourbons-not-from-kentucky

Might be tough to cut out all Kentucky bourbon, but we can do our part by occasionally buying other brands.

Thanks for ruining my planned sip or two later.

But, it’s a good point.