Archive for February 17th, 2006
Florida officially opens
February 17th, 2006
In a letter to the Wine Institute yesterday, Simone Marstiller, Secretary of Florida�s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, announced that out-of-state wineries can officially make wine shipments into the state of Florida.
In August, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled in the case of Bainbridge, et al. v. Turner that Florida’s wine shipping laws were unconsitutional. Since then, the Wine Institute recommended that California wineries should not ship wine into Florida until more permanent regulations were established. However, in a memo to members yesterday, Wine Institute President Bobby Koch gave the official green light to wineries to ship into Florida. You can see a copy of this memo here.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation - Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco issued a special memo for out-of-state wineries on their website. Click here to view the memo. Here are a few highlights from the new rules:
- Sales/Use Tax: “Sales and use tax must be paid to the Florida Department of Revenue by consumers for any wine purchased from out of state entities.”
- Excise Tax: “Excise tax must be paid to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation by wineries who sell wine directly to consumers in Florida. The report of all sales from wineries and the applicable excise taxes must be submitted to the DBPR Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco by the 10th of the month for any sales made in the previous month.” Click here to view the excise tax form.
- Reporting: Wineries must also submit a schedule of shipments made into Florida with the excise tax form. Click here to see the reporting form.
Small farm winery bill passes Arizona Senate committee
February 17th, 2006
Three wine shipping bills were proposed in Arizona, and one made it out of the Senate committee. This bill would allow small farm wineries that produce less then 50,000 gallons each year to make offsite shipments of wine to Arizona consumers.
The Arizona distributors, of course, are pulling out all the stops to prohibit direct shipments and stifle free trade. Their argument, which he have heard in every single state, is that they want to prevent the sale of alcohol to minors.
That argument just doesn’t fly anymore. States have a number of measures that they can use to prevent sales to minors. Distributors just want to protect their state-mandated monopolies, which hurt small wineries and consumers.
Read more about the new bill here.
