I have given kudos to the TTB for several years now for their ongoing efforts to provide resources and helpful information to the wineries and wine businesses across the country that are their “clients”. This is a smart move on their part since any tools or resource information that help wineries be successful interacting with the TTB saves them time and cuts down on phone calls and reports that show up filled out incorrectly. One of the TTB forms that has recently been created in what they call a “smart” version is the excise tax form wineries are required to file.

What makes this form smart is it prompts the person filling it out on how to fill in the boxes with the necessary information. In other words it won’t allow certain fields to be filled in incorrectly. It also prompts the user with pop up boxes on how to correctly fill in the various fields, does auto calculating of tax amounts and there is also a guide available with step by step instructions to walk you through completing the form from start to finish.

Anyone who has stared at this TTB excise tax form (Or any of their other forms) for the first time can relate to the need for making it as easy and fool proof to complete as possible. The sooner a winery gets it right with submitting forms like this to the TTB means they are saving time on their end.

(And potentially money- see my earlier post about the small producer’s tax credit!)

The TTB is smart to create these smart form versions on their end because doing so also saves them a lot of time. You can potentially imagine the mess that shows up on their desks from wineries not familiar with how to correctly complete their required reports. I know, I’ve seen them and I’ve also been that newbie who was at a loss in trying to figure out how to fill out their forms and learn their cryptic language.

For more info here is a link where you can download the form and user guide:

http://www.ttb.gov/forms/smartform.shtml

If you have further questions on determining what your taxes should be and what your options are for deciding when to actually pay them- please send me an email:   ann@winecompliancealliance.com

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