Additions and Enhancements

Redesign, Updating, and Posting of Alcohol Tax Policies – APIS has posted its new treatment of alcohol taxes, which replaces the previous alcohol tax data in the APIS Policy Topics section of the APIS Web site.  Beer, wine and distilled spirits taxes are treated as separate policies with data on each posted for the period 1/1/2003 through 1/1/2011.  The new treatment provides two sets of tax rates: “specific excise taxes” (taxes levied on the quantity of a beverage) and "ad valorem excise taxes" (taxes levied on the price of a beverage).  To facilitate cross-state comparison, data are provided for “index” beverages in each state: 5% ABV beer, 12% ABV wine, and 40% ABV distilled spirits.  A notes field provides additional information on differential tax rates for beverages with higher or lower alcohol content.  The new posting replaces five alcohol tax policies, which had not been updated since 1/1/2007 and which included separate treatment of taxes on sparkling wine and flavored alcoholic beverages.