Overview

WET is paid on wine and selected products such as cider, perry, mead and sake consumed in Australia. It applies either:

• at the last wholesale sale to a retailer; or
• to direct sales from wine producers to consumers.

The WET system includes a producer rebate scheme. This entitles producers of wine and selected products to a rebate of 29% of taxable value of domestic sales, with the maximum rebate amount capped at $350,000 per financial year. This effectively makes the first $1.2 million of domestic wholesale sales exempt from WET.

Some legislative changes took effect from 1 July 2018, including:

• the producer rebate cap was reduced from $500,000 to $350,000 for transactions in wine
• the circumstances when claiming a WET credit were reduced
• additional information must be reported when buying wine under quote.

This gap forms a part of our overall tax performance program. Find out more about the concept of tax gaps and the latest gaps available.