James B. Beam Distilling Co. v. Department of Business Regulation, Division of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco
James B. Beam Distilling Co. v. Department of Business Regulation, Division of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco
Opinion of the Court
Appellant, James Beam Distilling Company (Jim Beam), appeals a final order of the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco denying appellant’s application for special excise tax classification sought pursuant to Section 564.06, Florida Statutes (1985).
Appellant raises three issues in its appeal. Finding no merit regarding the first two issues, we address only the third in which appellant argues the special excise tax scheme embraced within the provisions of Section 564.06, Florida Statutes (1985), is unconstitutional on its face, or as applied by the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco. As the statute has been ruled unconstitutional prospectively by the Florida Supreme Court in Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, Department of Business Regulation v. McKesson Corp., 524 So.2d 1000 (Fla. 1988), we see no need to consider appellant’s facial constitutionality claims and discuss only the constitutionality of the statute as applied to the taxpayer’s request for a special classification during the 1986-1987 tax year.
Appellant sought special excise tax classification pursuant to section 564.06 for several distilled spirit products manufactured from citrus fruit and sugar cane in Florida and bottled in the state of Indiana. The special excise tax classification was denied by the Division because Indiana was determined to have provided economic incentives to alcoholic beverages manufactured within Indiana and to have enacted discriminatory taxes favoring Indiana-produced beverages in violation of section 564.06(9)(a) and (b), providing that the special tax rates authorized in section 564.06 shall not be available in Florida to alcoholic beverages manufactured in states imposing discriminatory taxes against alcoholic beverages manufactured or bottled out-of-state, or to such beverages produced in states providing them agricultural price supports or other economic incentives or advantages.
Appellant does not dispute the existence of special taxing status and other economic incentives allowed by Indiana statutes to small Indiana wineries for Indiana products not exported out of the state.
Furthermore, even if the statute were applied by the Division in an unconstitutional manner, this court is without power to provide a remedy to the taxpayer. The statute has already been ruled unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court in McKesson, specifically rejecting the argument that a refund should be given a taxpayer as a result of the invalidly levied excise tax on alcoholic beverages. In so holding, the court observed that the cost of the tax had likely been passed on to the retail purchasers of the beverages, and to order a tax refund under such circumstances would in all probability result in a windfall to the distributors. 524 So.2d at 1010.
AFFIRMED.
. The relevant Indiana statutes are section 7.1-4-4-1, Indiana Code Annotated, exacting a 27-cent per gallon tax for wine produced by Indiana small wineries, compared to a 47-cent per gallon rate for other alcoholic beverages, and section 7.1-3-10-13, Indiana Code Annotated, allowing small Indiana wineries to have their products sampled at Indiana liquor stores, but making no similar provision for sampling of other alcoholic beverages.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.