When Wine is Not Wine for California Tax Purposes

Although it has not been extensively covered in the media, those involved in the manufacture and importation of certain wine products should be aware of the California Board of Equalization’s (“BOE”) proposed Regulation 2558.1, involving the definition of “wine” for excise tax purposes in California. The regulation should not affect typical wine producers; however, those that create alternative wine products where a portion of the alcohol within the product is derived from, for example, apples or malt grains, instead of grapes, but the product is marketed as a typical grape wine product, should be aware of the proposed Regulation. Enactment of the Regulation essentially means that a sangria product that is classified as “wine” by the ABC could be classified as a distilled spirit by the BOE, and thus be taxed at $3.30/gallon (the rate for distilled spirits that are 100 proof or less) as opposed to the $0.20/gallon rate applied to wine. That constitutes a tax increase of 1650%. The proposed Regulation would define “wine” for BOE purposes as products that do not include more than .5% alcohol by volume derived from the distillation of fermented agricultural products other than the main agricultural product from which the wine is made. This is different that the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control’s (“ABC”) definition, which defines wine as:

…the product obtained from normal alcoholic fermentation of the juice of sound ripe grapes or other agricultural products containing natural or added sugar or any such alcoholic beverage to which is added grape brandy, fruit brandy, or spirits of wine, which is distilled from the particular agricultural product or products of which the wine is made and other rectified wine products and by whatever name and which does not contain more than 15 percent added flavoring, coloring, and blending material and which contains not more than 24 percent of alcohol by volume, and includes vermouth and sake, known as Japanese rice wine.

Essentially the ABC’s definition looks at wine as a product to which only a certain amount (15%) of “other” material can be added, while the BOE’s definition is based on a requirement that 95.5% of the alcohol in the product be derived from a single commodity. The process of this change began at the BOE’s November 17, 2010 meeting, wherein it authorized an informal rulemaking process and proceeded on an expedited basis. On December 17, 2010, after preparing an initial draft of the proposed change, an interested parties meeting was held. During the meeting, it became clear to the staff that there was an industry divergence regarding what constituted legitimate “blending material” under the ABC’s definition and what should be included under the BOE’s definition. Thus, the BOE decided that further interested party meetings would not be useful and they settled on a BOE definition that did not derive from the blending viewpoint, but rather from the alcohol derivation viewpoint. On February 23, 2011, the final proposed regulation was issued. A 45-day comment period then began and the next step is a public hearing in front of the BOE in May 2011. The proposed Regulation is scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2012.

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This entry was posted on April 14, 2011.