Support New Zealand's craft beer brewers - Sign the Petition

[nzbrewer]

Sign the Petition -

The NZ government is considering raising taxes for all beer brewers to offset the social costs of irresponsible drinking. This could put some small craft breweries out of business. This poll argues that a 'one size fits all' increase in taxation will have a disastrous effect on New Zealand's boutique breweries - and that these brewers are the ones we should be rewarding not penalising.

Why? Because small boutique and craft breweries emphasise taste, flavour and create environments that encourage sensible and responsible drinking, whereas the Big Two brewers (DB and Lion Nathan - both foreign-owned) discount their beers to gain market share. They tend to target their advertising towards young people and encourage buying decisions made on the basis of price - bang per buck - not beer quality.

For the reasons above, we will lobby MPs and other supporters of great New Zealand craft beers to give tax breaks to small Kiwi-owned brewers. Sign our poll if you want New Zealand's craft brewers to survive!

Thank Mic Dover for starting the petition

Sign the Petition -

[HerrSchnapps]

Post isn't mine :) It's a copy-paste from an email Eric Crampton sent me today.

[Tony]

Right you are,My apologies! I should have read the first line, more carefully. Do you agree or disagree?

I read your blog, it reported much the same sentiment, or so I thought?

[HerrSchnapps]

That's his blog also :)

[Greig McGill]

Eric Crampton has now published his findings in a full report: http://www.econ.canterbury.ac.nz/RePEc/cbt/econwp/0910.pdf

Long read but well worth it.

[nzbrewer]

The same thing is happening in the USA for small craft brewers

Get Involved: Stop the Proposed Increase of Federal Beer Tax

ISSUES OF IMPORTANCE TO SMALL BREWERS — EXCISE TAXES

Small brewers are small Main street businesses, typically employing 10 to 50 employees.

Small brewers represent only 4% of the entire U.S. beer market by volume, with 95% of them being very small businesses (producing 15,000 barrels or less per year).

We strongly oppose proposals to increase the excise tax on beer.

* Proposals to increase and equalize the tax among all types of alcohol will tax small brewers at the highest rates because their specialty, gourmet and innovative beers typically have higher alcohol contents.
* Brewers already pay a disproportionately higher share of taxes compared with other products – federal, state and local taxes represent over 40% of the retail price for beer while the same taxes equal nearly 24% of the price for all other purchases.

Higher taxes will worsen the economic recession – resulting in less competitive products, reduced sales and revenues, lost jobs and, for some small brewers, business closures.

* $1 per case excise tax increase will typically cost the consumer at least $1.69 due to successive mark-ups as the case moves from brewer to wholesaler to retailer.
* Many small brewers are struggling to deal with the consequences of the 2008 spike in ingredient and operational costs.