Tennessee Attorney General Says Barrel Tax Constitutional

According to the AP, the Attorney General of Tennessee, Herbert Slatery, has announced his official opinion that barrels of whiskey are not exempt from the state’s personal property tax. This comes as Brown-Forman, parent company of Jack Daniel’s, and other distillers in the Volunteer State are pushing for a new law that would make barrels formally exempt from taxation.

This follows the determination by a Moore County auditor last month that the approximately two million barrels Jack Daniel’s had aging in its inventory were liable for the state’s personal property tax. This would require the company to pay an additional $2.8 million in tax annually. No distiller in the state has had their individual whiskey barrels counted as personal property in this way since Prohibition was repealed some 85 years ago.