Chapter 51 of the Internal Revenue
Code (IRC, 26 U.S.C. chapter 51) governs the production,
classification, and taxation of alcohol products, while the Federal
Alcohol Administration Act (FAA Act) at 27 U.S.C. 205(e) requires
alcohol beverage labels to provide consumers with adequate
information as to the identity and quality of alcohol beverages,
and each statute authorizes the Secretary to issue regulations
related to such activities. The TTB regulations issued under those
authorities require alcohol beverage producers and importers to
obtain formula approval from TTB for certain non-standard products
to ensure that the product is properly classified for excise tax
purposes under the IRC and that it is properly labeled under the
FAA Act. Currently, in lieu of the formula forms and letterhead
notices specified in the TTB regulations and specific to each
alcohol commodity (distilled spirits, wine, and beer/malt
beverages), which are approved under separate OMB control numbers,
respondents may submit TTB F 5100.51 or its electronic equivalent,
Formulas Online (FONL), approved under this OMB control number, to
TTB as an alternate procedure.
Program changes: TTB F 5100.51
and the FONL beverage alcohol submission application were
previously reported as separate information collections. However,
as a matter of agency discretion, TTB is now reporting TTB F
5100.51 and its FONL equivalent as two information collection
instruments under the same information collection since the two
instruments—one paper and the other electronic—collect the same
information from the same universe of respondents, and the
respondent may choose to respond to this information collection
using either instrument. Adjustments: As for adjustments, due to
changes in agency estimates, TTB has increased the overall
estimated number of annual respondents, responses, and burden hours
associated with this information collection. This increase is due
to continued growth in the number of alcohol beverage producers
regulated by TTB and the resulting increase in the number of
formula submissions made to TTB. However, because TTB recently has
declared more alcohol beverage products that previously required
formula approval to be standard products that do not required such
approval, the average number of such products submitted for formula
approval by each respondent has decreased from 5.2 to 4.932 per
respondent. Also due to changes in agency estimates, TTB has also
increased the Federal government and respondent costs associated
with this information collection. In addition, TTB is adding a
Privacy Act Notice to form TTB F 5100.51.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.