The Internal Revenue Code (IRC) at 26 U.S.C. 5041 imposes a per gallon Federal excise tax of varying rates on six classes of wineâthree classes of still wines (based on alcohol content), two classes of effervescent wines, and one class of hard cider. Under the authority of the IRC at 26 U.S.C. 5368, 5388, and 5662, the TTB regulations in 27 CFR Part 24, Wine, require wine premises proprietors to correctly identify wines kept on or removed from their premises by placing certain marks, labels, or other information on all production, storage, and consumer containers of wine. In a proposed rule titled âAlcohol Facts Statements in the Labeling of Wines, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages,â issued under its IRC authorities, TTB is proposing to require an alcohol content statement to appear on the labels of consumer containers of domestic and imported wine that are not currently subject to such labeling requirements under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAA Act). Because of the varying excise tax rates on wines, and because different tax classes of wine may be produced at the same premises, the required information is necessary to protect the revenue as it ensures that wines are correctly identified for excise tax purposes. TTB has determined that the placement of the required marks on wine containers, other than the proposed alcohol content statement, is a usual and customary business practice undertaken by respondents regardless of any regulatory requirement to do so. As such, per the OMB regulations at 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2), the great majority of this information collection request imposes no burden hours on respondents.
In a proposed rule titled âAlcohol Facts Statements in the Labeling of Wines, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages,â issued under its IRC authorities, TTB is proposing to require an alcohol content statement (within certain tolerances) to appear on the labels of consumer containers of domestic and imported wines that are not currently subject to such labeling requirements under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAA Act). Specifically, the alcohol content labeling requirement will be added to the TTB regulations at 27 CFR 24.257 for domestic wines and at 27 CFR 27.59 for imported wines. TTB has determined that mandatory alcohol content statements on labels for all wines subject to tax under the IRC will assist in protection of the revenue. Currently, TTB considers the IRC-based labeling requirements for wine containers to require only the display of usual and customary label information, which, under OMB regulations at 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2), imposes no additional burden on respondents under the Paperwork Reduction Act. TTB believes that responses to the expanded requirement to display alcohol content on labels of wine that were not previously subject to such a requirement will not require more than 1 hour annually per respondent. TTB also believes that the great majority of wine proprietors and importers either already label their products with an alcohol content statement or have ready access to such information for quality control purposes even if they do not display that information on their product labels. In addition, given the proposed compliance period of 5 years, TTB believes that all wine bottlers and importers will be able to coordinate any required labeling changes with their usual and customary scheduled labeling changes, and, as such, there will be no additional costs to respondents for this new information collection requirement.
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.
OMB No. 1513-0092 Supporting Statement (Notice 237-Alcohol Facts NPRM).docx
Marks on Wine Containers (TTB REC 5120/3)