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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Colorado U.S. senator Michael Bennet has called on Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to address the effect the federal shutdown has had on craft brewers. “The uncertainty of a government shutdown is affecting these business owners’ ability to invest, hire, grow and hit revenue targets,” Bennet wrote in a letter to Secretary Mnuchin. “The inability of these companies to plan also affects farmers, suppliers, and everyone along the craft brewing supply chain, an industry that contributes $76.2 billion and more than 500,000 jobs to the U.S. economy.” The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a branch of the Treasury Department, has been unable to review permits, new formulations or labels for brewers. More than 11,000 applications for labels have been backlogged since the start of the shutdown. Bennet cited several Colorado breweries being impacted by the shutdown: New Belgium Brewing and Oskar Blues are both delaying the launch of new products. Spice Trade Brewing in Arvada and Westminster Brewing Co. still have their permits pending. “If the shutdown worsens an already lengthy approval backlog, brewing companies could suffer delays and tens of thousands of dollars of lost revenue,” he wrote. Bennet concluded his letter saying he hoped Mnuchin could impress upon the Trump Administration the importance of working with Congress to end the shutdown and to outline how the Treasury Department plans to address the backlogs hurting breweries nationwide.

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DENVER — A bill introduced by state Sen. Rob Woodward (R-Loveland) is looking to aid Colorado small businesses with their taxes. The bill follows the 2018 decision that the Colorado Department of Revenue would enforce a sales tax policy requiring retailers to collect and remit sales tax based on where the customer receives the product. “The new rules state that sales tax must be collected and remitted based on the jurisdiction’s tax rate at the point of delivery for the taxable good when taxable goods are delivered to a Colorado address outside the retailer’s jurisdiction,” the Department of Revenue states on its website. “This includes any applicable state-administered local and special district taxes. For example, if a retailer delivers taxable goods to a customer’s address, sales tax must now be collected at the rate effective for the customer’s address, not the taxes that are in common between the customer’s address and the seller’s location.”(There is a grace period for this decision until May 31, 2019.) The decision to enforce puts a burden on small business owners, Woodward said in his bill introduction, because there are 700 different tax rates that apply to addresses across the state. Business owners have to look up the tax rate for an address where an item is being shipped, collect that tax and then complete the sales tax forms in the city where that address is to remit the sales tax. Woodward added that it is made all the more difficult given there is not a database where business owners can check each address to determine the correct tax rate. “They are setting up Colorado small business for a task that will be expensive and time consuming, and that will certainly result in violations and penalties because it will be near impossible to determine the sales tax for every address in the state,” Woodward said in a statement. The bill would exempt Colorado small businesses from the first $100,000 of out-of-jurisdiction sales. This would put Colorado businesses on par with out-of-state retailers, which are allowed an exemption of at least $100,000 due to a Supreme Court decision. “Colorado small businesses will breathe a sigh of relief if I can navigate this bill through the Legislature,” he said.

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