Importing and exporting beer or other alcohol beverages involves multiple levels of government regulation and taxation. Some regulations, taxes, and reporting requirements mirror your existing compliance obligations as a brewery. Other obligations are unique and include government agencies that are not involved in regulating domestic producers, such as US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Commerce Department.
Earlier this week, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued further guidance on the procedures for importers to take the lower tax rates and credits available under the Craft Beverage Modernization Act (CBMA).
Key points of the new guidance:
With this guidance, importers can now start benefiting from the CBMA lower rates and credits on entries going forward, and make drawback claims for imports entered since January 1, 2018.
Last week Customs & Border Protection (CBP) issued additional guidance on the Craft Beverage Modernization Act (CBMA) rules for applying the CBMA lower excise tax rates (for beer and distilled spirits) and credits (for wine) to alcohol beverages imported from other countries.
The new guidance provides further clarity on the procedures required to make claims for drawback (refund) of taxes paid at the non-CBMA rate on product imported since the beginning of calendar 2018. It also indicates that CBP expects to provide additional guidance this month (October) on taking the lower rates and credits contemporaneously with importing additional product going forward. Among other things, CBP apparently will soon publish: (1) a Controlled Group Spreadsheet to track eligibility for the lower rates and credits; and (2) an Assignment Certification that foreign producers must execute and their importers must file in order to claim the CBMA lower rates and credits.
In short, if CBP can keep to its timetable, importers can begin claiming the lower CBMA rates and credits by the end of the month.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) expects to publish tomorrow Interim Regulations authorizing the refund of beer, wine, and spirits excise taxes in connection with the 2017 tax reform act’s reduced rates and credits. The Interim Regulations specify:
The interim regulations will be effective on the date of publication (expected to be August 16, 2018).
CBP also initiated a 60-day comment period that will provide interested parties with opportunities to raise questions or identify issues that are not addressed in the interim regulations.
Please let us know if you have any questions about this development.
Yesterday, Customs & Border Protection (CBP) issued Guidance on the alcohol excise tax provisions contained in the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (Tax Act). Key points
Please let us know if you have any questions about this development.
On December 22, 2016, TTB published a Final Rule implementing the streamlined importation and exportation procedures established by the International Trade Data System (ITDS). See 91 Fed. Reg. 94186 (Dec. 22, 1016). ITDS is an interagency program to establish a “singe window” that importers and exporters can use to submit all data required by Federal agencies in order to clear imports or exports. Under the new system, importers and exporters will need to file only with the “Automated Broker Interface,” a system run and administered by Customs & Border Protection (CBP). The CBP system then makes that data available to every other federal agency, including TTB, which requires it. In short, importers and exporters of alcohol beverages can fulfill all their filing requirements electronically, through a single system.
A link to TTB’s Final Rule is found here.
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