Client Services / Alcohol Regulatory & Distribution / Excise Taxation - Alcohol Regulatory & Distribution

Excise Taxation - Alcohol Regulatory & Distribution

Alcohol beverages are subject to a variety of excise and occupational taxes.  Our Alcohol Regulatory & Distribution Group has extensive experience with issues involving federal and state excise and occupational taxes.  We counsel clients on methods for minimizing excise tax exposure, such as the 5010 credit for distilled spirits and the requirements for successfully avoiding tax payment on exported beverages and industrial alcohol products.  In addition, we have extensive experience representing companies in the alcohol beverage business and non-beverage alcohol suppliers and users in excise tax issues arising from audits and investigations by the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB).  We routinely handle proposed TTB tax assessments and adjustments arising from audits, and often negotiate offer-in-compromise settlements with TTB.  Should negotiations fail, our group can call upon the Firm’s full-service Tax Department to offer its substantial experience litigating federal and state tax matters. 

Representative Excise Tax Experience in the Alcohol Area

  • Successfully dispute several significant proposed excise tax assessments against a large, multi-plant brewer, persuading the TTB to abandon its proposed assessments and re-examine its policy toward the reporting issues in question.
  • Secure more than $4 million in federal excise tax credits after one of the largest alcohol beverage market withdrawals in U.S. history.
  • Counsel malt beverage manufacturers concerning TTB’s flavored malt beverage rulemaking and state efforts to tax flavored malt beverages as distilled spirits.
  • Represent a major U.S. brewer in negotiations with TTB concerning excise tax audit citations, securing a result of no fines and a significant reduction in potential back tax assessments.
  • Develop and execute a legislative strategy for a trade association, resulting in the U.S. Congress passing a quarterly excise tax filing option for small alcohol beverage producers and importers.

Contacts

Alcohol Regulatory & Distribution Client Services

McDermott Will & Emery

McDermott Will and Emery