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ATO Interpretative Decision

ATO ID 2005/224 (Withdrawn)

Excise

Distillation and alcohol concentration methods: reverse osmosis
FOI status: may be released
  • This ATO Interpretative Decision is withdrawn from the database because it contains a view in respect of a provision of the Distillation Act 1901 that doesn't apply on or after 1 July 2006 as a result of changes contained in the Excise Laws Amendment (Fuel Tax Reform and Other Measures) Act 2006 (repeal of the Distillation Act 1901). Despite its withdrawal from the database, this ATO ID continues to be a precedential view in respect of decisions up to and including 30 June 2006.
    This document incorporates revisions made since original publication. View its history and amending notices, if applicable.

CAUTION: This is an edited and summarised record of a Tax Office decision. This record is not published as a form of advice. It is being made available for your inspection to meet FOI requirements, because it may be used by an officer in making another decision.

This ATOID provides you with the following level of protection:

If you reasonably apply this decision in good faith to your own circumstances (which are not materially different from those described in the decision), and the decision is later found to be incorrect you will not be liable to pay any penalty or interest. However, you will be required to pay any underpaid tax (or repay any over-claimed credit, grant or benefit), provided the time limits under the law allow it. If you do intend to apply this decision to your own circumstances, you will need to ensure that the relevant provisions referred to in the decision have not been amended or repealed. You may wish to obtain further advice from the Tax Office or from a professional adviser.

Issue

Is an apparatus that separates wine into fractions via reverse osmosis a still as defined in section 6 of the Distillation Act 1901 (Distillation Act)?

Decision

No. An apparatus that separates wine into fractions via reverse osmosis is not a still as defined in section 6 of the Distillation Act.

Facts

An entity operates an apparatus that separates wine into fractions via reverse osmosis. The apparatus does not use evaporation or condensation to separate the fractions.

Reasons for Decision

A still is defined in section 6 of the Distillation Act as:

Still means any apparatus for or capable of distilling spirits and any part thereof and any apparatus connected or used in connexion therewith.

Based on this definition, any apparatus capable of distilling spirits is a still.

Distillation is not defined in the Distillation Act, but for convenience in interpreting that Act, section 5 outlines the ordinary course of distillation. Subsection 5(iii) of the Distillation Act states:

The wash is distilled in a still by heating to evaporation and condensing the vapour. The liquor product is spirits and the residue of the wash is spent wash...

The Macquarie Dictionary 2001 Revised Third Edition defines 'distil' as:

1. to subject to a process of vaporisation and subsequent condensation, as for purification or concentration.

Reverse osmosis does not involve a process of vaporisation and subsequent condensation. Therefore reverse osmosis is not a still as defined in section 6 of the Distillation Act.

Date of decision:  21 July 2005

Legislative References:
Distillation Act 1901
   section 5
   subsection 5(iii)
   section 6

Related ATO Interpretative Decisions
ATO ID 2005/223

Other References:
Macquarie Dictionary (2001 Revised Third Edition)

Keywords
Alcohol
Ethanol
Spirits

Business Line:  Excise

Date of publication:  5 August 2005

ISSN: 1445-2782

history
  Date: Version:
  21 July 2005 Original statement
You are here 19 September 2008 Archived

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