Wine Law

BRIEF NOTES ON VENEZUELAN WINE LAW 517 Agreement happened within the framework of the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA) and grants Chilean wines a 100% tariff preference, with which the tariff was 0% for their entry in Venezuela. This, of course, had an impact on the consumption of Spanish, French and Italian wines, which were the main competitors of Chilean wines: “If there is a country in the world that knows how the wine industry has evolved in Chile, it is Venezuela” 31 . Regarding tax law, in 1985, the first Law on Tax on Alcohol and other Alcoholic Species 32 was enacted. Its objective was, and continues to be, to discourage the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Thus, a tax of 0.10 bolivars per litre was decreed on nationally produced wine obtained by the total or partial alcoholic fermentation of the grape juice or must, when its alcoholic graduation does not exceed 14º Gay-Lussac. The same tax will be paid in the case of mistelas made by fermentation and sangrias without the addition of alcohol. Furthermore, liquor or compound wines and alcohol-added sangrias, of national production, will pay a tax of 6.00 bolivars for each litre of alcohol they contain, referred to 100º Gay-Lussac (Art. 12). Imported wines would pay a tax of 0.30 bolivars (Art. 13, ordinals 6, 7 and 8). The Law also exempted wine from the minimum annual production to which it subjected the other alcoholic species. This Law was reformed in 2005 33 , 2007 34 and 2014 35 , and, with each reform, the tax was increased until reaching, in the current law, a tax of 35% on the retail price (Art. 18). In 2015, the Law was complemented by a Ruling issued by the National Integrated Service on Customs and Tax Administration (SENIAT, by its acronym in Spanish), through which manufacturers, artisanal producers and importers of alcoholic beverages are designated as agents for collecting the value-added tax (VAT) 36 . The Law was last regulated in 1985 and this Regulation, which is still in force, defines wine, in Article 2 ordinal 18, as “the product obtained from the total or partial alcoholic fermentation of the grape juice or must with or without the addition of water before fermentation and with a real strength between 7° and 14° Gay-Lussac, both inclusive. When it is made with raisins, this condition of the fruit will be indicated on the label” 37 . 31 Viloria, Guía del Vino …, op . cit ., p. 106. 32 Special Official Gazette No. 3.574, 21 June 1985. 33 Official Gazette No. 38.238, 28 July 2005. 34 Special Official Gazette No. 5.852, 5 October 2007. 35 Special Official Gazette No. 6.151, 18 November 2014 36 Official Gazette No. 40.656, 8 May 2015. 37 The Regulation adds, in its Article 2, the following definitions related to wine: “19. Gasified Wine: It is the wine to which, after its final elaboration, pure carbon dioxide is added.