20¢ per gallon beer excise tax rate in California
A cold beer may cost more than you think. According to the Beer Institute’s Beer Tax Facts report, taxes account for over 40% of beer’s retail price, totaling $31.9 billion annually, including $5.3 billion in excise taxes—more than labor and materials combined.
These taxes disproportionately burden low- and middle-income households, who pay half of all beer taxes while earning less than a quarter of U.S. income. The report calls this regressive, noting that the poorest pay 6.5 times more as a share of income than the wealthy.
