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March 2016 Wines&Vines 17 wine industry news over 250,000 wine gallons, there is no credit." Changes in bond requirements The PATH Act states that alcohol producers eligible for annual or quarterly filing of excise taxes as of Jan. 1, 2017, will be "exempt from the requirement to file a bond cover- ing their operations or withdrawals of distilled spirits, wines for non- industrial use or beer." According to Michael Kaiser, director of public affairs at WineAmerica, these changes will affect the majority of wineries across the country. "A winery that has a tax bill below $50,000 won't have to maintain a wine bond," he stated, "and that can save a winery from $100 to $1,000, depending on the size of the winery." Kaiser noted that TTB is working on regulations to implement the new law, and he stressed, "Nothing will change to the existing law until the new law goes into effect in 2017." Mary Beth Williams, president of Williams Compliance and Consulting Group outside Richmond, Va., noted that the premium small wineries pay for their wine bond is often be- tween $100 and $200 per year. "That's not a lot of money," she said, "but every little bit helps. With small wineries, often the winery owner is the grapegrower and the winemaker and the sales person in the tasting room. An additional benefit to small wineries is that it's one less regulatory headache." Changes to the definition of 'hard cider' An increasing number of wineries across the country are now making cider as a part of their product line. For the purposes of alcohol excise taxes, the new legislation defines a hard cider as a wine produced primarily from apples, apple juice concentrate, pears or pear juice concentrate combined with water; with an alcohol content between 0.5% and 8.5% alcohol by volume and a carbonation level that is not above 6.4 g/L. The upper limit for alcohol content in hard cider will remain at its current rate of 7% until the legislation goes into effect Jan. 1, 2017. Funding changes for TTB According to WineAmerica, the TTB has had a 10% reduction in its workforce since 2007, in spite of the fact that TTB is "the third-biggest revenue genera- tor in the entire federal government, taking in an estimated $23 billion in revenue." The appropriations bill includes $106.44 million in funding for TTB, which is an increase of $5 million over the past fiscal year. "TTB has been stretched very thin," Williams com- mented. "This will be a welcome thing both for the industry and for TTB employees. It should help with label and formula approvals, and maybe with license amendments for winer- ies wanting to expand." —Linda Jones McKee The new rules related to wineries will go into effect Jan. 1, 2017.