Okay, I’ve had enough. Time to speak out. I’ve been getting press releases from the National Beer Wholesalers Association for many months now about the [expletive deleted] estate tax (it’s correct name by the way; they keep calling it the “death tax,” which alone pisses me off). I’ve been simply deleting them but the sheer number of the e-mails I’ve gotten over the last few months is truly staggering, maybe one every other week. There is no other issue facing the beer industry that’s received that kind of attention from a trade organization since they talked about changing the way that breweries are taxed. And it doesn’t even directly relate to beer, just the companies themselves. Today I got yet another one and it was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. There has simply been far to much attention paid to this issue and far too much misinformation given the small number of people it will benefit. Even though the NBWA is a trade organization of companies that distribute beer, it’s seldom that I agree with their agenda, and this is a perfect example. It happens — take the Costco case in Washington — but generally they advocate for their members and that’s not always the same as what it is in the best interests of craft brewers, which is where my sympathies lie.
But their relentless pursuit of this estate tax agenda framed in terms of protecting family businesses from having their hard-earned money taken from them is, simply put: bullshit. The only people effected by the estate tax will be people whose estates are valued above a certain amount and chances are if you’re reading this you’re not someone who will be effected by it. 99% of the people in the U.S. will pass their estates on to their loved ones and pay zero income tax. So that begs the question “why is the NBWA so hot about this issue?” And the answer is simple. Because their membership is choked with a few mega-huge distributors who are part of the 1% that might have to pay something when one of their patriarchs (or matriarchs) sadly passes away. The “small family-owned businesses” that the NBWA goes on about saving is just propaganda. But at this point I’m beyond that epithet. Let’s call a spade a spade. It’s just bullshit. This is a few rich families using a trade organization for their own selfish ends. When their press release talks about “92,000 hardworking Americans” almost none of them will be effected by the estate tax, unless of course, the family decides to fire some of them rather than lose their country club membership.
To read the facts about about this issue, try Myths and Facts About the Estate Tax at Fair Economy. Or try Nolo Press’ assessment. And here’s an estate tax calculator at Americans for a Fair Estate Tax. There is also information at the IRS.
A report in late April by Public Citizen revealed that:
18 families worth a total of $185.5 billion have financed and coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the estate tax, a move that would collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion.
Here’s the propaganda-filled NBWA press release:
As the Senate prepares for a possible vote on the [estate] tax this week, the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) is ensuring Senators know that America’s beer distributors need permanent relief from this onerous tax.
Earlier today, NBWA’s Federal Affairs team delivered a bottle of Blue Moon beer to each Senator. Each bottle was accompanied by a message urging Republicans and Democrats to set aside their differences and provide small businesses with permanent relief from the death tax once and for all.
“Beer distributors around the country have waited a long time for the Senate to act on the death tax,” said NBWA President Craig Purser. “Since it happens only once in a blue moon, we wanted to take the opportunity to remind Senators how important permanent death tax relief is to the small family-owned businesses that NBWA represents.”
Permanent relief from the federal death tax is a top legislative priority for the nation’s beer distributors. Many beer distribution companies have been family-owned and -operated since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Today, beer distributors employ more than 92,000 hardworking Americans. Aside from stripping these small business owners of their livelihood, the death tax can also cost the community jobs and economic output.
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At the left is the marketing piece sent to every member of Congress urging them to repeal the estate tax, along with a bottle of Blue Moon beer. Below is the label to Blue Moon Belgian White Ale, the stealth micro owned by Coors, itself a rich family-owned company. Kind of ironic, isn’t it?
So what are we to conclude from the facts vs. the propaganda spewing out of the NBWA? I think it tells us a lot about the make-up of beer distributors nationwide. There are, of course, small beer distributors doing a great job of promoting and selling great beer. I personally know several of them, past and present, in California, Oregon and Washington. But I don’t think any of their interests are being served by squandering NBWA funds on fighting the estate tax. But I guess the little distributors don’t have much of a voice in a trade organization so obviously dominated by giant companies. I think the reason this pisses me off so much is the misuse of emotional imagery about “America’s family-owned businesses.” All the rhertoric paints a distorted picture of reality that benefits a few rich families which — and this should not be overlooked — if they’re successful means the rest of us will be picking up their tab. If the estate tax is repealed and that money is no longer collected from these super-rich families then one of two things will occur. Either the services that money would have paid for will be cut or you and I will be paying higher taxes to make up the difference. That means small craft brewers and beer consumers will have to pay so that these super-rich beer distributor families can stay super-rich. Now how fair does that sound? |
[…] I realize this is not, strictly speaking, beer news, but given the NBWA’s unrelenting efforts to help their rich members avoid paying taxes, and my diatribe about it two days ago, I wanted to update the story. Today, the Senate voted to “reject a Republican effort to abolish taxes on inherited estates during an election year with control of Congress at stake.,” according today’s San Francisco Chronicle. The vote was three short of the votes needed to advance the bill. […]