Get to know your beer taxes by state

State excise taxes vary wildly by state. If you don’t know, an excise tax is an indirect tax on listed items by the state, collected by the producer or retailer and not paid directly by the consumer, and as such often remains hidden in the price of a product or service. Arizona has an excise tax on a six pack of beer that’s $0.9. Georgia has a state excise tax on a six pack of beer that’s $0.57 (and that’s not the most expensive). Just surf over to CNN Money and check out their cool interactive U.S. map of beer taxes. We quote the accompanying article:

With a state excise tax of $0.6 cents per gallon of beer, or $0.3 cents per six pack, Missouri — home to Anheuser-Busch — has one of the lowest beer taxes in the nation. Tennessee, which happens to be the heart of whiskey country, claims the top spot, due to combined excise and wholesale taxes that push the tax burden for consumers to $1.17 per gallon, or $0.66 cents per six pack, according to the Tax Foundation’s analysis of beer-specific statewide taxes.

Other states with the highest beer taxes include Alaska ($1.07 per gallon), Alabama ($1.05) and Georgia ($1.01), which charge more than $0.50 cents in taxes on a six-pack. Meanwhile, the lowest taxes are in Wyoming, a generally tax-friendly state which levies only $0.2 cents in taxes on a gallon of beer or $0.1 cent per six pack. Other low beer-tax states include Wisconsin and Colorado, the respective birthplaces of Miller and Coors brews.

Read a lot more of the entire article right here.