Wine producers feel tax burden (NZ)

Many Marlborough wine producers say the region is being unfairly saddled with a large amount of the country’s excise tax for wine. Saint Clair Family Estate owner and managing director Neal Ibbotson said as the country’s largest wine producing region, Marlborough wineries were paying $127 million a year to the Government. New Zealand wineries paid a total of $170m in excise tax to the Government last year, reports The Marlborough Express. The past three years had been the toughest the industry had experienced in 30 years but the Government would not give them a break, he said.