Maine’s alcohol tax has three moving parts: per-gallon excise taxes paid by producers and wholesalers on beer, wine, and cider; a $1.25 per proof gallon premium on distilled spirits; and sales tax collected at purchase, either 5.5% for a bottle you take home or 8% for a drink you order in a bar or restaurant. Spirits are sold only through the state’s control system, so the premium on liquor is already built into the shelf price rather than added at the register.
What You Pay at the Register
Buy a six-pack, a bottle of wine, or a bottle of liquor at a store, and Maine’s standard 5.5% sales tax applies to the purchase. Order a beer, a glass of wine, or a cocktail at a licensed establishment — bars, restaurants, tasting rooms, bowling centers, golf courses, breweries, wineries, and distilleries selling for on-premises consumption — and the rate is 8%.1Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 36 1811 – Sales Tax The 8% rate also covers prepared food, so a restaurant meal with drinks is taxed at that rate across the whole check.
Maine does not authorize local-option sales taxes on alcohol, so those two percentages are the full sales-tax bill no matter which town you buy in.
Excise Tax Rates by Beverage Type
Under 28-A M.R.S. §1652, Maine taxes beer, wine, and cider at the manufacturing or wholesale level. Producers pay these taxes before the product ever reaches a shelf, so they show up to consumers only indirectly, through the cost of the goods.
The per-gallon rates:2Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 28-A 1652 – Excise Tax on Malt Liquor and Wine
- Beer (malt liquor): 35¢ per gallon
- Still wine that isn’t sparkling, fortified, or hard cider: 60¢ per gallon
- Sparkling wine: $1.24 per gallon
- Fortified wines and low-alcohol spirits products: $1.24 per gallon
- Hard cider: 35¢ per gallon
Hard cider, defined under Maine law as a fermented apple or pear beverage of at least 0.5% alcohol by volume, is taxed at the same rate as beer.3Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 7 543-A – Cider Fortified wines and low-alcohol spirits products share the sparkling-wine rate rather than sitting in a separate tier.2Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 28-A 1652 – Excise Tax on Malt Liquor and Wine
One useful exemption for Maine producers: beer, wine, or low-alcohol spirits products shipped to an out-of-state wholesaler for resale elsewhere, or sold directly to an out-of-state consumer, are not subject to the Maine excise tax.2Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 28-A 1652 – Excise Tax on Malt Liquor and Wine
The Spirits Premium and Why Liquor Prices Work Differently
Distilled spirits do not flow through private wholesalers in Maine. The Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations (BABLO) is the only entity authorized to bring liquor into the state, and the Liquor and Lottery Commission sets the retail price for every spirits product sold here.4Maine Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations. Spirits That controlled retail price already includes the state’s cut, so when you buy a bottle from an agency liquor store, there is no separate spirits tax added at the register.
The cut built into that price is the spirits premium under 28-A M.R.S. §1703, currently $1.25 per proof gallon. Proof gallon is a measure that scales with ethanol content, so a stronger bottle carries more premium than a weaker bottle of the same size. The premium applies only to distilled spirits; separate premiums that once existed for malt liquor, wine, fortified wines, and hard cider were repealed in 2013, leaving the §1652 excise taxes as the only state production taxes on those products.5Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 28-A 1703 – Premiums; Collection
Premium revenue goes to the General Fund. The legislature requires that the amount appropriated from the General Fund for substance use disorder prevention and treatment be no less than what the premium brings in.
Federal Excise Taxes on Top
Every state tax above sits on top of federal excise taxes administered by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). Rates were made permanent under the Craft Beverage Modernization Act in late 2020.6Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Craft Beverage Modernization Act
Beer carries a federal rate of $18 per barrel (about 31 gallons), with reduced rates for smaller producers: breweries making no more than two million barrels a year pay $3.50 per barrel on their first 60,000 barrels, and a $16 per barrel rate applies to the first six million barrels more broadly. Still wines at 16% alcohol or less have a base rate of $1.07 per wine gallon, with graduated credits of $1.00, 90¢, and 53.5¢ per gallon at successive volume tiers; hard cider gets smaller credits of 6.2¢, 5.6¢, and 3.3¢.6Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Craft Beverage Modernization Act Distilled spirits are taxed at $2.70 per proof gallon on the first 100,000 gallons, $13.34 up to 22.23 million gallons, and $13.50 above that.
Producers and importers pay both the federal and state amounts.
Who Files and When
Licensed breweries and wineries owe the Maine excise tax by the 15th of each month on products removed from bonded areas during the prior month.2Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 28-A 1652 – Excise Tax on Malt Liquor and Wine Retailers, restaurants, and bars collecting the 5.5% or 8% sales tax file with Maine Revenue Services on the same monthly cycle, with returns due by the 15th of the month following the reporting period.7Maine Revenue Services. Sales and Use Tax Rates and Due Dates
On the federal side, anyone selling alcohol to consumers or other dealers must register with the TTB before beginning business. Any change in name, ownership, address, or type of business must be reported by the following July 1, and a closing business must notify the TTB within 30 days. Importers are required to keep records and supporting documents for at least three years after the close of the calendar year in which they were filed, extendable to six years at the TTB’s request.8eCFR. 27 CFR 41.208 – Maintenance and Retention of Records and Reports
Penalties for Late or Unpaid Tax
Missing a Maine deadline costs 1% of the unpaid tax for each month or partial month the balance stays outstanding, up to a 25% cap.9Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 36 187-B – Penalties If the state issues a formal assessment and the business still has not paid within 10 days of a demand notice issued after all administrative and judicial appeals are exhausted, the penalty jumps to a flat 25% of the amount owed.
Negligence that causes an underpayment adds a penalty of $25 or 25% of the underpayment, whichever is greater. Intentional fraud raises that to $75 or 75% of the fraudulent portion.9Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 36 187-B – Penalties
Federal penalties run alongside the state ones. The TTB charges 5% of unpaid tax per month for failure to file a return, capped at 25%, and 0.5% per month for failure to pay, also capped at 25%. When both apply in the same month, the filing penalty is reduced by the payment penalty to avoid full double-counting.10Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Tax Penalties and Interest Businesses required to pay by electronic fund transfer that miss the deposit face a separate penalty of 2% to 15% of the underpayment depending on how late the transfer arrives, and interest compounds daily on unpaid balances at both the state and federal level.