Quote:
Originally Posted by Torture
And this is kind of my point. Is it technically a trade barrier? No, it applies to everyone. But it's a new requirement because for the past 10+ years Albertans have been able to buy direct from BC wineries and these taxes weren't applied. A loophole maybe, but one the Government was certainly aware of. And arguably, the product never sat in an AGLC warehouse so there's no real reason for it to have the same tax as product shipped from (insert country) to AGLC warehouse and then out to a liquor store.
So last year the UCP said 'no more shipping direct from wineries to Albertans' while we review. Then they brought this in and took a victory lap saying 'woohoo, we removed trade barriers by allowing BC to ship directly to Alberta consumers BTW we're going to put this fee on everybody, please applaud us for free trade'.
In reality, their free trade allows us to do something you could already do, minus the short period when they put a stop to it. But they added a 30% price increase because AGLC has to get their share even though the product never touches AGLC's hands.
Net result, it's much more costly to buy Canadian wine than it was a year ago.
Ahh yes, except the tax starts at bottles of wine that cost more than $15 and goes up from there. (with the percentage also going up as the price goes up so it's a double wammy because the neat thing about percentages, is they already go up as value goes up. There's no need to increase them as value goes up. ) So it's more like adjusting the GST rate on all cars where a honda civic starts at 5%, a Rav4 goes to 10%, and Porches have a 15% tax.
But even then, we're not talking about a luxury tax that starts at $100 bottles of wine, it starts at wine that's $15/litre which is probably pretty much average. So it's probably more like drawing the tax distinction between a Civic, a Prius, and a Rav4.
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First, your timeline is a little off as you seem to be relating the April 1 tax/fee changes with allowing DTC wine sales. They are two independent things. The policy on DTC sales was changed in late 2024 and allowed shipments to starting again in Jan 2025. With the new policy on DTC sales one of the stipulations was that the wineries had to register with AGLC and had to remit the existing fee/tax (~$3 at that time). As of April 1, there is a new tax structure that is ~$4 plus the sliding scale percentage.
You appear to claim that DTC shouldn't be taxed because it doesn't flow through an AGLC warehouse. I would question why you feel that DTC wine shouldn't be subjected to taxation when part of that revenue, theoretically, is a sin tax. We know that alcohol is a carcinogen and is bad for the body and as such all alcohol sales should be taxed.