The Australian Taxation Office released the following statement to wine producers in Australia and New Zealand, informing them that changes to the wine equalisation tax (WET) legislation concerning the wine producer rebate have now come into force. The changes which apply from 10 December 2012 can affect the amount of rebate that producers are entitled to claim.

From that date, producers who buy wine for blending or further manufacturing must reduce the amount of their producer rebate claim by any earlier amount of producer rebate attributable to the wine.

Suppliers of wine can choose to notify buyers, in the approved form, how much rebate they are entitled to claim on the wine they are selling. This will enable producers who buy the wine for blending or further manufacture to calculate how much rebate they are entitled to claim.

If wine producers don’t receive a notification from their supplier, they should assume the supplier has claimed the full rebate on the wine supplied to them, and subtract that amount from their total claim.

The amount to subtract is 29% of the GST exclusive price on the purchased wine.

The changes also apply to New Zealand wine producers, however how a New Zealand producer claims the rebate, after the end of the Australian financial year, remains the same.

Eligibility for the rebate and other existing WET rebate requirements for Australian and New Zealand wine producers have not changed.

For more information about the changes and what constitutes ‘approved forms of notification’ Australian wine producers can go to ‘Guide to Wine Equalisation Tax’ and

New Zealand wine producers can go to ‘Wine equalisation tax – producer rebate for New Zealand wine producers’ on www.ato.gov.au.

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