There’s no shortage of questions around the topic of winery compliance. I hear them all the time from folks across the spectrum of the business, from those just getting started to well seasoned veterans who have worked years at many wineries. One of the most standard resources I point them towards for the answers to their questions is the TTB’s website. So with that in mind I thought I’d put together a Top 10 list of what I see as the most useful items that can be found there.

1. Wine Online Seminar. This is a slide show presentation accompanied with audio that covers the entire process: from permitting through recordkeeping, reporting, taxes and labeling. Very appropriate for someone just getting started, but also for those more seasoned, it can also be used to refer back to as needed.

2. Tutorials for common forms. These are tutorials that are designed to walk you through the two most common forms familiar to us in the wine biz: the “702” and excise taxes.

3. Common compliance issues in audits. This covers a list of the most common issues that come up during audits and how to make sure you avoid them.

4. Small Producer credit details. The SPC is a hefty tax break available to wineries who qualify for it, but there are some definite twists and turns to be familiar with in making sure you qualify for it and how to file.

5. Offers in compromise. To follow up with the audit topic, this lists the details after the fact of an actual audit, what the violations were and what fines they were required to pay as a result.

6. Online filing resources. The TTB now offers 3 online filing systems that wineries can use to manage their winemaking compliance: COLAs online, Pay.gov and Permits Online.

7. Wine labeling resources. In addition to the online filing resource of the COLAs online system the TTB also has several other labeling related resources from the list of updated allowable label changes to sample wine labels and their searchable Public COLA registry.

8. Current Stats. For those of you who like to keep up with the current #’s related to the wine business they offer lists of all the current TTB permit holders in the US by type, or you can look up current production and bottling volumes or how long label approval turn around times are.

9. Email updates. For those of you who like to keep in the loop you can sign up for email updates from the TTB so you can stay up to date on regulation updates regarding your records, wine labels, taxes and more.

10. Wine seminar handout packet.  For those of you who have been around a bit you’ll remember when the TTB offered day long free seminars to those of us in the business where they reviewed common topics and shared current updates. The last year they offered these was 2010, and since these helpful seminars are no more the best way to get at all that helpful, most referenced information is via this downloadable pdf file from the 2010 seminar.

I’ve definitely seen the TTB’s website come a long way since I was first viewing it back in 1998. They have made it much more user friendly which is a smart move on their part.

Interested in this list complete with the links?

Just send me an email to: ann@winecompliancealliance.com      titled “Top 10 TTB” and I’ll send it right over.

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