Hand Sanitizer Shortage Prompts Distillers to Seek Tax Exemption (1)

Distillers are asking Congress to help make it easier for spirits producers to shift toward producing hand sanitizer during the new coronavirus pandemic.

The industry has already gotten some help from the federal government: The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau announced on Wednesday that any permitted distillery could switch over to manufacturing hand sanitizer or ethanol for use in sanitizer production without needing any additional permit or authorization.

Now the industry is seeking an excise tax waiver that would make it cheaper for them to use undenatured alcohol—which is used for making alcoholic spirits for consumption—to make ...