Tax-Hating South Totally Cool With Taxing Your Beer

Forget what you've heard about the low-tax South. Southerners actually pay some of the highest taxes in the nation when it comes to the important things in life, like beer.

An array of federal, state and local taxes can end up costing you more than 44 cents on top of every dollar you spend on beer in states like South Carolina, Texas and Virginia, according to data from the Beer Institute, a trade association.

Probably not coincidentally, taxes are lowest in states where people drank the most beer, such as Nebraska and the Dakotas.

Hefty excise taxes on beer in some states doesn't necessarily equate to high "sin taxes" on all indulgences. Other states with heavy levies on beer, including Alabama, Georgia and Missouri, had some of the lowest taxes on cigarettes.

The Beer Institute is currently lobbying Congress to pass a bill dubbed the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act, or BEER Act for short, in hopes to cutting off future rounds of tax hikes.

But in the meantime, see how much your state is skimming off of your pint.