Industry Circular Number: 72-32
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Department of the Treasury |
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ESTABLISEMENT OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS BULLETIN Federal firearms licensees and explosives licensees and permittees; proprietors of distilled spirits plants, bonded wine cellars, taxpaid wine bottling houses, volatile fruit flavor concentrate plants, export warehouses, and vinegar plants; dealers in and users of specially denatured alcohol; reprocessors of specially denatured alcohol articles; users of taxfree alcohol; manufacturers of tobacco products, cigarette papers and tubes, non-beverage products (drawback), and liquor bottles; brewers; importers; wholesale dealers in alcoholic beverages; and others concerned: PURPOSE. This circular is issued to inform you that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will begin, in the near future, to publish a bulletin which will be the authoritative instrument of the Director for announcing official rulings and procedures and for publishing regulatory documents (Treasury Decisions), legislation, administrative affairs, and other interest items relating to Bureau matters. BACKGROUND. Treasury Department Order No. 221 established the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, effective July 1, 1972. Under this order, the functions, powers, and duties of the Internal Revenue Service arising under laws relating to alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives (including the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division of the Internal Revenue Service) were transferred to the newly established bureau. Prior to this transfer matters relating to alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives were announced by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in the Internal Revenue Bulletin. In order to facilitate the transfer of the duties of the former Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division of the Internal Revenue Service to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, it was decided to have the Internal Revenue Bulletin serve temporarily as the authoritative instrument of the Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, for announcing official rulings and procedures of the Bureau and for publishing other items of general interest. Announcement of this matter was published in the Federal Register for July 29, 1972. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS BULLETIN. Because matters affecting the industries under regulation of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would be more effectively disseminated through use of a bulletin containing only material relating to alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives, we intend to start an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bulletin as soon as possible. The groundwork for such a document is currently being laid. Matters relating to Bureau activities will no longer be printed in the Internal Revenue Bulletin and for better continuity, all matters of the Bureau which have been printed in the Internal Revenue Bulletin since July 1, 1972, will be incorporated into an early issue of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bulletin. FORMAT OF BULLETIN. The Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bulletin will be a six-part document arranged as follows:
Parts I, II, and III-those containing the matters which most directly affect your day-to-day activities-will each contain four separate subparts covering alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives, respectively. Part IV will contain recently enacted legislation involving any of the laws administered by the Bureau and the committee reports relating to such legislation. Part V will contain administrative matters of the Bureau such as functional statements and delegation orders. Part VI primarily will contain interest items which we want to call to your attention. BENEFITS OF BULLETIN. We believe that the new bulletin will be useful to you in several ways. First, as indicated in the above outline of its contents, the bulletin will contain all matters of a regulatory, procedural, or administrative nature as well as other items which warrant your attention. In effect all official Bureau matters affecting your operations will be in one publication. Second, since regulatory changes as well as rulings and procedures issued by the Bureau will be categorized under "alcohol", "tobacco", "firearms", and "explosives", as appropriate, matters relevant to your particular operations may be easily located. Third, and most important, is the fact that the bulletin will be the authoritative instrument for announcing official rulings and procedures issued by the Bureau. For your convenience, even though certain documents, such as Treasury Decisions, are required by law to be published in the Federal Register, they will be republished in the Bulletin. However, as was the practice of the former Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division, the Bureau will not publish its rulings and procedures in the Federal Register. Instead, the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bulletin will, in practically every instance, be the Bureau's sole publication in which a ruling or procedure will be printed. Another related consideration which we want to bring to your attention is that we anticipate a much more expanded program for issuing rulings and procedures than has been conducted in the past. The goal of the Bureau is to issue a ruling or procedure in each instance where a useful purpose will be served. We believe that the long-run benefits of an active ruling and procedure program will be severalfold. It will provide you with guidelines covering specific situations, facilitate your compliance with regulatory requirements, and alert you to procedures available to you which might otherwise not come to your attention. At the same time it will reduce the need for frequent correspondence on other similar situations between your offices and ours. COMPLIMENTARY MATERIAL FURNISHED TO INDUSTRY SEGMENTS. As you know, upon issuance of a Treasury Decision or a ruling or procedure affecting your particular segment of industry, we have often been furnishing you with "self-mailer" copies of the Treasury Decision or with an industry circular announcing the ruling or procedure, as the case may be. In the interests of economy, in making these documents available to you through publication in the Bulletin, we do not plan on issuing individual copies of this type of information as a general practice. In view of this, we believe it would be to your advantage to have access to the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bulletin so that you may stay currently advised of matters affecting your operations. ACQUISITION OF BULLETIN. The Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bulletin will be published on a monthly basis and will be available through the Superintendent of Documents on both a subscription and single-copy basis. In addition the contents of the monthly bulletins will be consolidated, most likely on an annual basis, into a permanent, indexed, cumulative issue. These will be sold on a single-copy basis. Subscribers to the monthly bulletin will be notified when copies of the cumulative issues are available. We hope that the usefulness of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bulletin will be apparent to each of you and that you will avail yourself of the publication. Included with this circular you will find an order form which you may use to procure the Bulletin if you so desire. In order for the Superintendent of Documents to enter your subscription in time for the first issue, your order should reach that office by December 29, 1972. As you can see on the order form, the subscription rate to the bulletin is only $4.50 per year. We feel that this is quite reasonable for so valuable a reference tool. NOTIFICATION TO OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES. We are forwarding copies of this circular to all registered members of the alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives industries, as well as all related industry, trade, State, and local associations of which we are aware. However, since our mailing lists may not be sufficiently comprehensive to reach all such organizations, we would very much appreciate your bringing this circular to the attention of any such organization which services you. INQUIRIES. Inquiries concerning this circular should refer to its number and be addressed to the Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Attention: ATF:RR, 1111 Constitution Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20226
Rex D. Davis Director |
