Fuel taxes unfair, NBWA tells IRS - National Beer Wholesaler' Association complains on floor stocks tax on fuel

Modern Brewery Age, Jan 28, 1991

Fuel taxes unfair, NBWA tells IRS

The nation's beer distributors unfairly got the "double whammy" on floor stocks taxes, National Beer Wholesaler' Association president Ronald Sarasin said in recent comments filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS published regulations on December 3, 1990 requiring anyone holding more than 4,000 gallons of gasoline or 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel on December 1, 1990 to pay a floor stocks tax on the fuel, even if it was held as an end-user rather than a reseller. Under last year's tax act, beer wholesalers are also liable for a floor stocks tax on the beer they had on hand as of January 1, 1991.

"If the gasoline floor stock tax on end-users is meant to beat potential tax cheats," Sarasin explained, "it would have been simple to compare the gas on hand on December 1 with the average monthly amount held by business." Instead, Sarasin noted, the floor stocks tax regulations apply to all fuel held by those meeting the minimum criteria and no credits are permitted.

The regulations, Sarasin said, "place an overly-heavy burden on all transportation-intensive businesses. Beer wholesalers, though, get the double-whammy. The government is taxing any product on hand as well as the means to deliver it."