Indiana County has a number of successful local breweries, and their owners will be keeping an eye on a hearing scheduled next week in Pittsburgh. The House Liquor Control Committee, which is chaired by Representative Jeff Pyle, will be meeting to examine a new tax on the local brewers, which will take effect on July 1st.
The State Revenue Department announced in a tax bulletin recently that it will begin requiring brewers to collect the state’s six percent sales tax on every portion of beer sold, at the point of sale. Representative Natalie Mihalek, who will host the hearing, says she has introduced legislation that would impose the tax at the wholesale level, just as it is when bar owners buy their beer from distributors. Mihalek says the new tax hurts brewers who serve their beer at their taprooms or storefronts. “A pour of their beer should not cost the consumer more at the source than it does at a local restaurant.”
Mihalek says the new tax procedure will unnecessarily harm brewers who do not use distributors to get their product, but make it on their own.
The hearing on Tuesday afternoon will be held at the Spoonwood Brewers in Pittsburgh.
