1. Industry Updates

BA Announces Lobbying Activities Percentage of 2014 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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The Brewers Association recently mailed brewery members a letter regarding percentage of dues not tax deductible due to lobbying activities. The letter is to inform members of the non-deductible portion of their 2014 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 2014 tax return.

The Brewers Association engaged in lobbying activities during 2014, 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.

Dues payments as a business expense for the year 2014 will be limited by the percentage of dues that went towards supporting lobbying activities, and only the remaining portion of dues can be claimed as an expense on your federal tax return.

For 2014, the percentage of non-deductible dues pertaining to your tax return is 14.9%.

Lobbying funds for the professional division in 2014 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. 494 and S. 917. Detail on these bills can be found at BrewersAssociation.org.

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.

Thank you,

Paul Gatza

January 27, 2015

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