Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau February 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In response to a request from an alcohol industry trade association, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau reopens the comment period for Notice No. 53, Use of the Word ``Pure'' or Its Variants on Labels or in Advertisements of Alcohol Beverage Products, an advance notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on December 7, 2005. The comment period is reopened for an additional 30 days.

This Treasury decision establishes the 38,000-acre ``Covelo'' viticultural area in northern Mendocino County, California, about 150 miles north of San Francisco. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase.

This temporary rule implements the quarterly excise tax payment procedure for small alcohol excise taxpayers contained in section 11127 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, which amended section 5061 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Before passage of this law, most Federal alcohol excise taxpayers paid the tax on a semimonthly basis. We are amending the applicable regulations on a temporary basis to incorporate the legislative change allowing quarterly payments. We also are soliciting comments from all interested parties on the implementation of this new procedure through a notice of proposed rulemaking published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.