Sales Tax Lifted at Wine Tastings in New York

Here’s something to raise a glass to: New York no longer adds a sales tax to the charge for tastings at wineries. State officials said wineries had to collect a tax on sales of wine, either by bottle or the glass and exemptions to the tax didn't cover the wine tastings, until now.

The announcement by Gov. Andrew Cuomo comes after wineries pushed for the change at an April summit in Albany. Wineries conducting tasting were already exempt from paying a use tax.

Tyler Pauck, sales manager at Sheldrake Point Winery on Cayuga Lake, said lifting the sales tax would help wineries’ revenue. He said the winery charges $3 a tasting, and about 25 cents of that went to pay for sales tax. The tasting room gets about 30,000 visitors a year. “It certainly adds up. We definitely support it,” he said.