NY's small brewers, distillers expect boost from tax law

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Some small businesses in New York City are celebrating the positive side of the recently passed taw overhaul.

Even though there is a lot of talk about the big corporate entities like Apple, Facebook, or Google benefiting from this tax bill, Randall Filer, a professor of economics at Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center, said those corporate tax reductions will actually benefit Americans.

"Lower taxes over 10 or 15 years should increase investment in all industries in the U.S.," Filer said. "So workers should benefit from higher wages and consumers should benefit from lower prices."

Filer said about 80 percent of Americans are expected to get tax cuts under the GOP plan. Small-business owners will also keep more money in their pockets.

"Small-production firms, particularly those that are family-owned or owned by entrepreneurs, are going to be one of the big winners because their rate will be cut," Filer said. "Particularly those who have been taxed at high personal income rates will now have those rates cut."

Filer said he believes that tax cut will allow business owners to invest.

"If I see if I'm only going to give 28 cents of every dollar to the government instead of 40 cents, I'm much more likely to grow my business to invest, to hire more workers," he said.

One of the industries that will benefit is craft brewing and distilling.

"It's really a win for us," said Celeste Beatty, founder of and brewer at Harlem Brewing Company, which has been in the business for 17 years.

Beatty said the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, part of the recent legislation, is a huge benefit to brewers and customers.

"As a result of us paying less taxes per barrel we will also have less cost per barrel, which means we will be able to reduce some of the cost that ordinarily would get passed on to the consumer," she said. "We are probably looking at per case anywhere from 50 cents to possibly as much as a dollar depending on what the costs are internally."

Beatty said the law also fosters more collaboration because producers will no longer have to pay a tax on transferring beer.

"As long as we are transferring it to a bonded warehouse or other brewers, we will be able to do more collaboration and not have to take on the liability of that tax to collaborate with a brewery in another state, another place," Beatty said.