The pandemic relief deal brokered by Congress includes a temporary tax waiver that would make it cheaper for spirits producers to make hand sanitizer.
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a trade group representing both major and craft liquor producers, pushed Congress to waive the federal alcohol excise tax for the use of undenatured alcohol—used to make alcoholic beverages—in hand sanitizer. Denatured alcohol, which is used to make products not meant for consumption, is already exempted from the excise tax.
The deal, which must still win approval from both chambers of Congress, would waive the tax for 2020, ...