Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau September 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is adopting as a permanent regulatory change a flat $1,000 penal sum for the brewer's bond for brewers whose excise tax liability is reasonably expected to be not more than $50,000 in a given calendar year and who were liable for not more than $50,000 in such taxes in the preceding calendar year. TTB originally set forth this change in a temporary rule issued on December 7, 2012. In addition, TTB is adopting as a final rule its proposal, also issued on December 7, 2012, to require small brewers to file Federal excise tax returns, pay tax, and submit reports of operations quarterly. TTB expects these amendments to reduce the regulatory burdens on such brewers, reduce their administrative costs, and create administrative efficiencies for TTB.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) recently published a direct final rule amending its regulations regarding the electronic submission of forms and other documents. Among other provisions, those amendments added a new section providing that any requirement in the TTB regulations to submit a form to another agency may be met by the electronic submission of the form to the other agency, as long as that agency provides for and authorizes the electronic submission of the form. This final rule corrects those recent amendments by amending the definition of the term ``form'' to encompass all documents required by the TTB regulations to be submitted to any other agency, as well as to TTB, and by inserting a cross reference to that definition in the new section on the electronic submission of forms to other agencies.