Incorrect reporting and payment of wine equalisation tax (WET) is due to:
- simple mistakes or omissions such as calculation errors
- lack of awareness of WET obligations due to complexity of the system
- deliberate non-compliance, including
- claiming WET producer rebate when not entitled
- claiming WET producer rebate on exported wine
- incorrect quoting and inadequate quotation documentation
- overvaluing wine for claiming the WET producer rebate
- not accounting for WET on wine for own use
- misclassification of goods to take advantage of lower tax rate.
Our goal is to improve compliance and have the correct amount of WET reported. Our compliance strategies focus on:
- providing education, support and guidance that helps registrants report the correct amount of WET payable and refundable
- ensuring wine products are classified correctly
- cross-checking our data and WET payable to identify inconsistencies that may indicate non-compliance
- identification and acting on WET registrations used to claim false refunds
- focussing on incorrect claiming of WET credits on wine exports.