Many of you may be aware that taxation on beer is, basically, one size fits all. Until you get into really high alcohol (>12%) or really low alcohol (<3%) everything is taxed the same in BC. This has created a culture in BC where strong alcohol beers are the norm, we are all pretty used to it here but I’m sure we’ve all had visitors from out of province who have found themselves suddenly quite plastered from just a couple of Fat Tugs. Many countries and jurisdictions don’t do it this way, they have a sliding scale which taxes higher alcohol beers more than lower alcohol beers and it looks like BC is heading that way too. Many also have marked glassware, advertise volumes and ABVs clearly so that the consumer can make an informed decision.
Recommendation 18 From the liquor review states: LDB should consider tying minimum prices to the amount of alcohol (e.g., a beer with seven per cent alcohol would have a higher minimum price than a beer with four per cent alcohol) When Paddy and I met with John Yap he asked us what we thought about about this possibility - we side-stepped the question as we had no idea this was something that was being considered and CAMRA BC had no official position. Since then we have considered both sides of the argument and at our recent BC Executive Summit we decided to cautiously support the move with one condition: that the government matches the tax hikes on bigger beers with exactly proportional cuts in lower alcohol beers to maintain their net-zero mandate for changes to the liquor code. If this turns out to be a cynical tax-grab in the guise of public safety then CAMRA BC would withdraw support but I believe that if handled well this would be beneficial and helpful to everyone in the community: Consumers, Licencees and Brewers. I expect that some will denounce such a move by the government as onerous and unfair, perhaps even accusing them of stifling creativity or punishing breweries that specialize in higher proof styles but provided they make cuts to lower alcohol beers we would hopefully see these brewers getting creative with smaller styles like Milds, AKs, Folköls and “three-two beers” some of which have almost vanished from the face of the earth and are ripe for re-evaluation and re-introduction. This would certainly make an interesting change to the traditional & repetitive styles that most new breweries have as their regular line up providing a whole new slew of styles to create, conquer and pair with food!
CAMRA BC - Vancouver Branch has already been leading the way with encouraging production of lower alcohol beers that still have a big flavour with our annual Spring Sessional Cask Festival now entering its 3rd year (tickets still available for May 10th 2014 at the Cobalt) and a firm favourite among those craft-beer geeks who know that high alcohol is no guarantee of high quality. Recently CAMRA BC’s Advocacy sub-committee has sent a letter to the government CAMRA BC will continue to advocate on behalf of the consumer and whenever the BC Government announces a change we’ll be right there fighting for you and if we think that this is just a bullshit tax-grab we will tell you straight!
Adam Chatburn
President, CAMRA BC - Vancouver Branch
You are missing the bigger picture. This is Molson and Labatt trying to drive up the cost of craft beer just like the spirit companies did in the 2000s with minimum pricing.
How about a flat tax based on all types of alcohol? Why should a 12% beer receive more tax than a 12% wine? Is the ethanol in the wine someone different from the ethanol in the beer?
The system should be a series of benchmarks for all products. A 15% wine should have just as much tax on it as a 15% spirit and a 15% beer. Currently the 15% wine is taxed at 117% while the spirit and the beer is taxed at 163%. Conversely, a 7% beer is taxes at 98% while a 7% wine is taxed at 117%.
One tax fits all is the way to go. If you limit yourself to beer, Molson and Labatt’s lobby groups will drive up the price of all beer above 5% Mark my words.
Absolutely stupid idea to tax beer at varying rates. KISS - Keep it simple stupid comes to mind.
And how many more auditors will be required to figure out how much pil, ipa, dopple bock has been sold?
With all due respect to the fine work CAMRA Vancouver does, this move is ill considered and demonstrates a juvenile understanding of government relations.
The current equal tax structure causes no serious disincentive for brewers wishing to create small beers.
By taking such a position with the province, all you have done is granted them legitimacy for a tax grab which will see BC fall off the earth with respect to our big beer production due to the strong tax disincentives.
You can be guaranteed that any tax discounts on small beers will be insignificant while taxes on big beers will wipe out their economic viability.
I only hope that this position has not been communicated to Mr. Yap and that we still have time to correct this error.
Thanks so much for your feedback - we’re always happy to hear alternative viewpoints and challenges to our campaigns, it shows just how much you craft beer fans know and care!
As you may know CAMRA BC is a consumer advocacy group and while we really love our BC breweries and liquor stores we can’t advocate on their behalf.
The government has said that they plan to tax stronger beer more than weaker beer, this is for public health and safety reasons and is widely accepted outside BC as a means to tax booze fairly and help curb drunkenness. It seems that this is going to happen (according to the Premier who endorsed all the recommendations), we can’t stop it and we don’t want to because we too have the health and safety of consumers in mind. All we are trying to do is make sure that any increase is met with an appropriate cut elsewhere so that it isn’t just a tax grab from you - the consumers.
If we feel that the taxation is too much, applied unevenly or targets craft-beer consumers unfairly we will withdraw our support and start a fight! But at this early stage we feel that this is the way to go.
One of our main recommendations in the liquor review last year was for all forms of alcohol to be treated (and therefore taxed) equally under the law but clearly a per bottle flat tax on all beer, wine and spirits would be impractical - there would have to be a benchmarking and that benchmarking should be related to ABV regardless of what form of drink it comes in (a 15% wine, beer or spirit SHOULD have the same taxation). The width and depth of those benchmarks is going to be very important and very difficult to do in a way that satisfies everyone but it should simplify it for everyone, we would be happy to talk with the government about this.