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Architects work with state brewers guild on COVID challenges
Matthew Tota
Few breweries have ever designed a taproom with a pandemic in mind.
Before last March, I would have told you that’s a good thing. Taprooms should embrace close quarters and communal reveling. I should feel cramped waiting at the bar to place my drink order in a warm, crowded room. We should sit outside only in 70-degree weather under the sun’s splendor.
Now, though, give me space, give me hand sanitizer stations, give me an outdoor seat no matter how cold, because not only does it mean I can still go to breweries, it also means breweries can stay in business.
New stimulus package permanently extends excise tax regulations saving craft brewers thousands
Updated Dec 23, 2020;
The bill adds even more relief to craft breweries across the country as it relates to the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA).
Current regulations tax $3.50 per barrel of beer on the first 60,000 barrels produced by breweries. The tax jumps to $16 for every barrel beyond 60,000.
The regulation was set to expire on Dec. 31. The stimulus bill permanently extends the regulation.
If it had expired, the cost would jump from $3.50 to $16 regardless of the size of a brewery.
“That’s huge. I can’t even imagine if that actually wasn’t extending and suddenly we had to pay four times as much in federal excise tax,” CEO of Redemption Rock Brewing Co. Dani Babineau said.
As Massachusetts tightens reopening guidelines, small business accuse Congress of playing politics with stimulus money
Updated Dec 10, 2020;
On April 3, the day the federal government launched the Paycheck Protection Program, there were 280,417 total cases of coronavirus across the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University. As part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, $349 billion was set aside for small businesses for the program.
Eight months later, the U.S. reported 215,860 new cases in a single day on Dec. 8, pushing the total since the start of the pandemic to more than 15 million, according to the university.
As cases surge to heights thought unimaginable in the spring, the federal government hasn’t budged on approving a new stimulus package for small businesses.