Prices on pints poured at taprooms will become more expensive this summer if the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue has its way.

Starting July 1, the agency wants brewers to collect a 6 percent sales tax.

That has many manufacturers of beer and malt beverages in the state buzzing.

“If we had to pay sales tax on all of the beer that we sold I would have to either increase my prices significantly or l would have to lay someone off,” said Scott Rudich, owner of Round Guys Brewing Co. in Landsdale.

As the deadline near, brewers say they are looking for clarity – and pushing for a fairer tax.

“The problem with that is that 6 percent on every pint will result in us paying four or five times more than a wholesale tax,” said Adam Harris, deputy executive director of the Brewers of Pennsylvania.

Harris and others in the industry have been negotiating with Gov. Tom Wolf’s office and the Department of Revenue. Last week they shared their concerns at a House Liquor Control Committee hearing in Pittsburgh.

Basically, brewers want the tax charged at the wholesale level, the same way it’s done between distributors and retailers such as restaurants and grocery stores.

But the Department of Revenue’s proposal has brewers collecting the tax on every portion of beer sold to customers in their taprooms. That would make it tough for brewery owners who would have to pass the tax onto customers or eat the cost themselves, Harris said.

As an example, Theodore J. Zeller III, general counsel for the Brewers of Pennsylvania, said while restaurants pay about $9 in taxes on a half keg of beer, breweries would pay $40 or $45 considering the keg contains about 120 pints and you charged $6 per pint.

“We don’t want to pay four or five times more sales tax than everyone, especially because of the fact beer has a unique place in Pennsylvania,” Zeller said.

Chris Trogner, co-owner of Troegs Independent Brewing in Hershey, said the proposed tax would confuse consumers.

“If they were to come into a brewery and see they are being taxed 6 percent, and they go to a bar across the street and they don’t see a 6 percent tax on their bill, they don’t understand the difference,” Trogner said.

Harris added that in 2015 when the state opened up beer sales to breweries the state didn’t require a sales tax. The state revenue department has said the tax isn’t new, but that it’s merely a clarification of liquor laws that require breweries to collect sales tax.

“Obviously at a zero percent sales tax we blossomed as an industry and does that slow the industry down?” he said. “I hope that doesn’t put anyone out of business and I don’t think it does when the economy is well. What does that six percent across the bar do when the economy isn’t as strong in five or 10 years? That’s why we want to settle on something that’s fair to everyone.”

Brewery owner Tom Kehoe of Yards Brewing Company in Philadelphia said he doesn’t oppose a tax; it should just be fair.

“I think it’s the right way to do it. Nobody gets hurt and we create tax, which is what we need to pay bills in Pennsylvania," he said.