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 wine—three 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 “Alcohol Facts
Statements in the Labeling of Wines, Distilled Spirits, and Malt
Beverages,” 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
“Alcohol Facts Statements in the Labeling of Wines, Distilled
Spirits, and Malt Beverages,” 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)