Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau is focused on responding to President Biden’s recent executive order on promoting competition, David M. Wulf, deputy administrator, told National Beer Wholesaler Association‘s legislative conference. “The fact alcohol is mentioned is a recognition of the alcohol industry’s importance,” he said.
TTB is considering possible trade practice updates, along with revisions to the process of establishing standards of identity and ingredient labeling. “You can count on the process being open and inclusive,” he said.
TTB is also focused on improving the industry’s “TTB experience,” he said, with efforts under way to further cut the time required to process COLA and formula applications, as well as to improve the online process. “We want your business to grow and thrive and to contribute to the federal excise tax base.” Other priorities include maintaining a competitive marketplace and trade practices.
The agency is still incorporating provisions of the Craft Beverage Modernization Act, Wulf said as it gears up to take over some bev/al import responsibilities from Customs & Border Protection. Wulf noted that the President’s budget includes $14 million and authorizes hiring of 40 people to implement that mission. Whether Congress will approve both the funding and the personnel in time to meet the Jan. 1 deadline when TTB assumes that function is an open question.
Wulf noted that TTB collects about $20 billion a year in taxes which makes the agency and its 550 employees the federal government’s third largest tax collecting agency behind the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Customs & Border Protection.