Quiero saber acerca de...

jspears on DSK121TN23PROD with PROPOSALS1

68574

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 230 / Friday, December 3, 2021 / Proposed Rules
and permit or registration eligibility criteria. Proposed amendments include:
Eliminating various requirements to submit operational information.
Specifically, TTB proposes eliminating eight 8 regulatory provisions requiring submission of information including, but not limited to, descriptions of production procedures and storage systems.
Tailoring requirements to describe the DSP premises more narrowly to specifically correspond with statutory requirements, and consolidating requirements to provide descriptions of alternation operations with the general DSP premises description.
Replacing requirements to submit narrative descriptions of DSP security with certifications that the applicants security measures will comply with enumerated regulatory requirements.
Eliminating requirements to provide serial numbers of DSP
equipment in the application, thereby allowing equipment to be reported in the aggregate where applicable and allowing a DSP application to be submitted prior to physical receipt of the equipment.
TTB is also proposing to amend the regulations to increase industry flexibility without imposing regulatory burden. These amendments benefit DSPs, users and dealers of specially denatured alcohol and tax-free alcohol, and, where appropriate under statute, Federal Alcohol Administration Act basic permit holders. Proposed amendments include:
Extending deadlines for reporting certain changes in the business from 30
days to 60 days.
Allowing regulated businesses to add or remove trade names by submitting a notification to TTB rather than applying for TTB approval.
Allowing regulated businesses to maintain required records at a location other than the permitted premises without first obtaining TTB approval.
Section II of this document includes more in-depth discussion of the proposed amendments.
As noted above, TTBs deregulatory strategy also includes streamlining longstanding policies and practices implementing existing regulations. TTB
has already begun deploying such streamlining efforts in response to both TTBs internal evaluation of application processes and to comments received from the public.
For instance, TTB has implemented significant reductions in the information collected on form TTB F 5000.9, Personnel QuestionnaireAlcohol and Tobacco the Personnel Questionnaire and its electronic equivalent in response
VerDate Sep<11>2014

17:53 Dec 02, 2021

Jkt 256001

to comments submitted to Treasury through the Request for Information.
TTB collects the Personnel Questionnaire as part of the application process for most types of permits or registrations. The Personnel Questionnaire collects information about individuals involved in an applicants business such as a businesss officers, directors, or principal investors, including information about such individuals identity, employment and residence history, investment in the business, prior involvement in TTB-regulated businesses, and criminal record, if any.
The collection of this information has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget under Information Collection number 1513
0002.
TTB uses this information to determine whether the applicant, including the individuals involved in the applicant business, meet the statutory eligibility criteria for obtaining a permit or registration. These criteria are set forth in detail in section 1B of this document. Upon careful review, TTB recognized that it could reduce the information collected through the Personnel Questionnaire. TTB has revised form TTB F 5000.9 and its electronic equivalent in Permits Online to substantially reduce the number of required fields and to eliminate some of the most time-consuming fields such as general employment history and residence history. TTB also has stopped collecting supporting documentation for certain types of investment in an applicant business e.g., bank statements, loan documentation, promissory notes, etc..
B. TTB Authority The Federal Alcohol Administration Act FAA Act, 27 U.S.C. 201, et seq.
and chapter 51 of the IRC, 26 U.S.C.
chapter 51, require persons intending to engage in certain distilled spirits-related businesses to obtain a permit, or approval of a registration, from the Secretary of the Treasury Secretary before beginning operations. Many distillers engage in operations that require both a permit under the FAA
Act and a registration under the IRC.
The amendments proposed in this document generally relate to the application requirements for such permits and registrations, including requirements to report certain changes in the regulated businesses.
Additionally, amendments proposed in this document address application requirements for permits under the FAA
Act for operations as importers or
PO 00000

Frm 00004

Fmt 4702

Sfmt 4702

wholesalers of distilled spirits, wine, and/or malt beverages.
The FAA Act requires that persons seeking to engage in business as producers of distilled spirits, or as importers or wholesalers of distilled spirits, wine, and malt beverages, obtain a permit before beginning operations.
See 27 U.S.C. 203. The term distilled spirits, when used in the context of the FAA Act, applies only to distilled spirits for nonindustrial use. The TTB
regulations at 27 CFR 1.60 set out uses of spirits that are regarded as industrial. The FAA Act at 27 U.S.C.
204c provides that the Secretary will prescribe the manner and form of all applications for basic permits. Note that the FAA Act also requires permits for producing, rectifying, or blending wine and that these activities also require qualification under the IRC; TTB plans to modernize wine-specific permit requirements in a separate rulemaking document.
Chapter 51 of the IRC contains excise tax and related provisions concerning distilled spirits, wines, and beer. This includes requirements that persons intending to engage in certain activities related to producing, using, or dealing in distilled spirits obtain a registration and/or permit from the Secretary before beginning operations. As noted above, TTB will address in a separate rulemaking the application requirements under the IRC for bonded wine cellars, bonded wineries, taxpaid wine bottling houses, and brewers notices.
The IRC requires each person seeking to establish a distilled spirits plant, before commencing operations, to apply for and receive notice of registration of the plant. See 26 U.S.C. 5171c. Those persons whose distilled spirits plant operations are not required to obtain a basic permit under the FAA Act are required to obtain an IRC operating permit. See 26 U.S.C. 5171d. The applications for registrations and permits are to be in such manner and form as the Secretary prescribes by regulation. See 26 U.S.C. 5172
registrations; 5171d1 and 5271b1
operating permits.
The IRC provides for the issuance of permits to establish plants for the purpose of producing, processing, storing, using, and/or distributing distilled spirits that are exclusively for fuel use alcohol fuel plants. While alcohol fuel plants, as a type of distilled spirits plant, are generally subject to the registration and permitting requirements of sections 5171c and d, and any associated qualification requirements, the IRC at 26 U.S.C. 5181 provides authority to prescribe by regulation a
E:FRFM03DEP1.SGM

03DEP1