What has changed
The Australian Taxation Office has issued an addendum to its ruling on the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) producer rebate, reference WETR 2009/2A4. The addendum applies to Australian wine producers and does not apply to New Zealand participants.
New rebate cap from 1 July 2026
From 1 July 2026, the maximum WET producer rebate that an Australian producer - or a group of associated producers - can claim in a full financial year increases from $350,000 to $400,000.
At the $400,000 cap, the rebate effectively offsets WET on approximately $1.38 million (wholesale value) of eligible wine sales or own-use applications per year.
Rebate cap history
The ruling now records the following cap history:
- $290,000 - from 1 October 2004
- $500,000 - from 1 July 2006
- $350,000 - from 1 July 2018
- $400,000 - from 1 July 2026
Technical updates to the ruling text
The addendum also makes the following technical changes to the ruling:
- Company names used in examples have been updated - for instance, 'Chard Pty Ltd' has been changed to 'Chard Co'.
- An outdated reference to the A New Tax System (Wine Equalisation Tax) Regulations 2000 has been replaced with the A New Tax System (Wine Equalisation Tax) Regulations 2019.
Key actions
- The maximum WET producer rebate cap increases to $400,000 per financial year from 1 July 2026 - internal budgets or rebate estimates that relied on the previous $350,000 cap are required to be updated to reflect this change.
- WET rebate claims for the 2025-26 financial year and beyond are required to use the correct cap of $400,000, not the previous $350,000.
- Compliance processes that reference the A New Tax System (Wine Equalisation Tax) Regulations 2000 are required to be updated to refer instead to the A New Tax System (Wine Equalisation Tax) Regulations 2019.
- The full updated ruling, including details on source product ownership rules, container-for-retail-sale rules, and trade mark requirements, is available at the ATO website.
This is a plain-English summary for information only, not legal or compliance advice. Always check the official source or consult a qualified professional.