WASHINGTON -- Last week, the Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee rejected a proposal to bring back the defunct special occupational tax (SOT) in the form of a new alcohol user fee on retailers.
NACS has been fighting against the Obama administration’s proposal to have the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) impose fees on companies that produce, import and sell alcohol beverages. The president’s budget for 2010 contained a provision for the TTB to collect fees to fund a substantial portion of its budget.
The annual fee proposal is essentially a re-imposition of the SOT that grassroots retailers and NACS helped repeal. The proposed fee structure was almost exactly the same as the tax structure before repeal, except it raises the “fee” on retailers from $250 to $300 per store.
“The Committee does not recommend assessing fees on producers, distributors, and retailers of alcohol in order to offset TTB’s operating costs, as proposed in the budget,” noted a committee report.