It’s fighting an uphill battle to get any attention in the current global climate, but the Winemakers Federation of Australia is doing its darndest to make wine tax an election issue. With 22 House of Representative seats covering wine producing regions to a greater or lesser extent, several of which are held by the Government with very slender majorities, it’s clear they have a point. The reality is that since 1983, when the first tax on wine was introduced, neither major political party has paid any real attention to the WFA’s stance on tax. The Labour Party is prepared to offer a token exemption from the 29% Wine Equalisation Tax for wineries producing less than 50,000 litres (around 5,500 cases) a year. The WFA is arguing to extend that limit to 600,000 litres, which would return $87 million to the wine industry, the exact amount the WFA says it is overtaxed each year since the introduction of the WET and GST. The WFA’s limit would exempt more than 90% of wine producers, yet would still capture WET from more than 80% of all Australian wine. The WFA’s stance is based on logic, accurate accounting and the inescapable reality that Australian rural infrastructure, employment and tourism are depending to an ever increasing degree on wine.
