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BA Announces Lobbying Activities as a Percentage of Dues

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Senior Vice President of Professional Brewing Division

Paul Gatza is the Senior Vice President of Professional Brewing Division at the Brewers Association. Paul’s origin in the beer community started when he took up homebrewing in 1990. He worked on the bottling line at Boulder Beer and would sneak over to the brewhouse when opportunity allowed. He owned a pair of homebrew supply shops in Boulder and Longmont, Colorado from 1994 to 1998. He served as director of the American Homebrewers Association for seven years and is in his 23rd year as Brewers Association director. Paul is ranked as a National Beer Judge by the Beer Judge Certification Program. Paul is also a former judge director of both the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup, before moving to the judge panels for these elite competitions.

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This note is to inform brewery, allied trade and distributor members of the Brewers Association information on the non-deductible portion of your 2011 member dues paid to the Brewers Association.  This non-deductible percentage pertains to the amount that cannot be claimed as a business expense by BA members on their 2011 tax return. The Brewers Association engaged in lobbying activities during 2011 and as such, we are reporting to all Brewers Association members the percentage of those lobbying activities (expenses) as they relate to total membership dues. Your dues payment as a business expense for the year 2011 will be limited by the percentage of dues that went towards supporting lobbying activities, and only the remaining portion of your dues can be claimed as an expense on your federal tax return.

For 2011, the percentage of non-deductible dues pertaining to your tax return is 23.0%.

Lobbying funds for the professional division in 2011 were related primarily to communications to educate elected federal representatives and senators and their staffs on the merits of excise tax recalibration bills H.R. 1236 and S. 534. For detail on these bills, please visit https://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/government-affairs/excise-taxes.  If you have any questions about the implications of this information, we recommend you discuss with your accountant(s).  If you need further information from the Brewers Association regarding this topic, please contact me. Thanks.

As of early February, there are currently 152 co-sponsors of H.R. 1236 and 37 co-sponsors of S. 534.

Paul Gatza

February 9, 2012

Link to author biography
Senior Vice President of Professional Brewing Division

Paul Gatza is the Senior Vice President of Professional Brewing Division at the Brewers Association. Paul’s origin in the beer community started when he took up homebrewing in 1990. He worked on the bottling line at Boulder Beer and would sneak over to the brewhouse when opportunity allowed. He owned a pair of homebrew supply shops in Boulder and Longmont, Colorado from 1994 to 1998. He served as director of the American Homebrewers Association for seven years and is in his 23rd year as Brewers Association director. Paul is ranked as a National Beer Judge by the Beer Judge Certification Program. Paul is also a former judge director of both the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup, before moving to the judge panels for these elite competitions.

See Paul Gatza's Articles