CBMA Imports Refund Program—Foreign Producer Registration and Assignment System, and CBMA Importer Refund Claims System

In recent years, certain amendments were made to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) by the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (Tax Relief Act; Division EE of Pub. L 116–260), which amended the Craft Beverage Modernization Act (CBMA) provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (sections 13801–13808 of Pub. L. 115–97). In summary, the Tax Relief Act transferred responsibility for administering CBMA provisions regarding reduced excise tax rates on imported distilled spirits and beer and expanded tax credits on imported wine (hereafter “CBMA tax benefits”) from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to the Department of the Treasury, effective January 1, 2023. In addition, under the Tax Relief Act, U.S. alcohol beverage importers will no longer be eligible for CBMA tax benefits at the time of entry. Rather, importers will be required to pay the full excise tax rate to CBP, and they will subsequently submit refund claims to Treasury to receive their assigned CBMA tax benefits for entries made after January 1, 2023. Specifically, with respect to the CBMA tax benefits available to U.S. importers, the IRC amendments codified at 26 U.S.C. 5001(c), 5041(c), and 5051(a) state that an importer will only be allowed CBMA tax benefits refund if a foreign producer has elected to assign, and the importer has elected to receive, such benefits in accordance with regulations and procedures issued by the Secretary of the Treasury (the Secretary). In addition, 26 U.S.C. 6038E authorizes the Secretary to require foreign producers seeking to make CBMA tax benefit assignments to provide information, including information about the control group structure of the foreign producer, as required by regulation. Under those amended IRC authorities, and authorities delegated to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) under Treasury Orders 120–01, 101–05, and 111–02, TTB issued temporary regulations establishing procedures for alcohol industry members to take advantage of the CBMA tax benefits that may be applied to specified limits of imported alcohol beverage products entered for consumption in the United States beginning on January 1, 2023 (see T.D. TTB-186, September 23, 2022, 87 FR 58021). The new regulations are contained in 27 CFR, Part 27, Importation of Distilled Spirits, Wines, and Beer, Subpart P, Craft Beverage Modernization Act Import Refund Claims. In particular, the new regulations establish the procedures by which (1) Foreign producers may assign CBMA tax benefits to U.S. importers (see § 27.254 through § 27.262), and (2) U.S. importers may elect to receive those assignments and submit their CBMA tax benefit refund claims to TTB (see §§ 27.264 and 27.266). This information collection request is required to ensure that the IRC provisions regarding alcohol excise taxes, including CBMA tax benefits, are appropriately applied, which is necessary to protect the revenue.

The latest form for CBMA Imports Refund Program—Foreign Producer Registration and Assignment System, and CBMA Importer Refund Claims System expires 2026-12-31 and can be found here.

Foreign Producer Registration and Assignment System

Federal Enterprise Architecture: General Government - Taxation Management

Review document collections for all forms, instructions, and supporting documents - including paper/printable forms.