A Look At Washington’s Surprisingly Low Beer Tax

OK, this is how naive I am. I had no idea that there was a Washington State beer tax. I mean, it makes sense after all. The government needs income. OK, let's tax beer. 

Interesting thing about this is that every state in the United States has a beer tax and the beer tax paid in Washington state compared to other states is pretty low. 

According to axios.com,
‘Washington's beer taxes amounted to $0.26 per gallon — the 25th highest rate among U.S. states, according to the Washington, D.C-based think tank.
That's far less than the taxes imposed in Tennessee (about $1.29 per gallon), Alaska ($1.07) and Hawai'i ($0.93), which have the highest overall state taxes on beer.’ 

Full disclosure here, I'm not a beer drinker, I never have been. I Remember when I was a kid watching my dad have her an ice-cold Rainier beer out of the cooler and I asked him if I could have a sip and he said sure, and I took a hit, and yuck, I thought why would anybody drink this on purpose? 

If you're a beer connoisseur, don't hate me. I'm sure there are aspects. Of beer culture that are almost poetic in nature. I just don't get it. 

OK, back to taxes. 

In some States the beer tax is also based on the strength of the beer. So, if you look at our neighbor to the South, Oregon's beer tax is only $0.08 a gallon. Surprisingly, Alaska's beer tax is about a $1.07 Per gallon. For some reason I was assuming that in Alaska the beer tax would be lower. Idaho's beer tax is running at about $0.15 per gallon. 

What I really want to know is does Canada have a beer tax? (Or since it's Canada, maybe the government pays you to drink beer.) 

And the answer is  

Canada does have a tax on all alcohol. They call it an excise tax. And the amount of tax is based on the alcohol content of the beer being sold. More alcohol, more tax.  

So, a beer sold in Canada with “not more than 1.2% absolute ethyl alcohol by volume” has a tax of $3.067 Per hectoliter. For those of us who are metric impaired, that comes out to about .03067 cents per liter.  

Now my next question for those of us in Washington state is where does our beer tax money go and what does it pay for?
I don't know, you tell me.
Where Washington's beer taxes rank among U.S. states - Axios Seattle
Washington state craft breweries saw both setbacks and gains in 2024 - Axios Seattle