BATON ROUGE – If your goal is to get Louisianans thinking about tax policy, this is the way to do it …
A new analysis from the Tax Foundation, a business-friendly think tank, says that Louisiana wine drinkers pay the equivalent of 76 cents per gallon in state wine excise taxes. The report is based on January 2020 data and was reported by the Center Square Louisiana.
Louisianans are accustomed to being at the top of lots of bad rankings and the bottom of good ones, but, in this case, we’re pretty middle of the road. The wine excise tax in Louisiana was 27th highest among the 50 states, the Tax Foundation study found.
The group said most states levy wine taxes based on volume, but others impose other types of taxation. Minnesota places per-bottle fees that vary based on size. States can also impose additional layers of taxation based on alcohol content, wine type and other factors, the analysis reports.
Five states – Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wyoming – have in place government monopolies on the sale of beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages, according to the analysis.
2020 Wine Excise Taxes by State
| Rank | State | Wine Excise Tax (Dollars per Gallon) |
| 1 | Kentucky | $3.30 |
| 2 | Alaska | $2.50 |
| 3 | Florida | $2.25 |
| 4 | Iowa | $1.75 |
| 5 (tie) | Alabama | $1.70 |
| 5 (tie) | New Mexico | $1.70 |
| 7 | Delaware | $1.63 |
| 8 (tie) | Georgia | $1.51 |
| 8 (tie) | Virginia | $1.51 |
| 10 | Maryland | $1.48 |
| 11 | Arkansas | $1.41 |
| 12 | Rhode Island | $1.40 |
| 13 | Illinois | $1.39 |
| 14 | Hawaii | $1.38 |
| 15 | South Dakota | $1.31 |
| 16 | Tennessee | $1.27 |
| 17 | Minnesota | $1.22 |
| 18 | North Dakota | $1.22 |
| 19 | South Carolina | $1.08 |
| 20 | Montana | $1.06 |
| 21 | West Virginia | $1.00 |
| 22 | North Carolina | $1.00 |
| 23 | Nebraska | $0.95 |
| 24 | New Jersey | $0.88 |
| 25 | Washington | $0.87 |
| 26 | Arizona | $0.84 |
| 27 | Louisiana | $0.76 |
| 28 (tie) | Connecticut | $0.72 |
| 28 (tie) | Oklahoma | $0.72 |
| 30 | Nevada | $0.70 |
| 31 | Oregon | $0.67 |
| 32 | Maine | $0.60 |
| 33 (tie) | Massachusetts | $0.55 |
| 33 (tie) | Vermont | $0.55 |
| 35 | Michigan | $0.51 |
| 36 | Indiana | $0.47 |
| 37 | Idaho | $0.45 |
| 38 | Missouri | $0.42 |
| 39 | Ohio | $0.32 |
| 40 | Colorado | $0.32 |
| 41 (tie) | Kansas | $0.30 |
| 41 (tie) | New York | $0.30 |
| 43 | Wisconsin | $0.25 |
| 44 | Texas | $0.20 |
| 45 | California | $0.20 |
| 46 | Mississippi | N/A |
| 46 | New Hampshire | N/A |
| 46 | Pennsylvania | N/A |
| 46 | Utah | N/A |
| 46 | Wyoming | N/A |
Source: Tax Foundation
