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Commonwealth act
This Act creates the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) — a 29% tax on wine sold in Australia. It came into effect on 1 July 2000 as part of the Howard Government's GST tax reform package.
Broader than you might think. It covers:
The WET is not paid by you at the bottle shop checkout — it's collected before wine reaches you. It targets the last wholesale sale (usually the sale from a distributor to a retailer like Dan Murphy's or a restaurant). In plain terms:
The tax is charged at 29% of the wholesale price (excluding GST).
To avoid wine being taxed multiple times as it moves through the supply chain, buyers can — their business registration number. When a business quotes its ABN on a purchase, the sale is exempt from WET. This makes sense: you only want to collect WET once, at the final wholesale level.
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Zoe can write the in-depth analysis on top of the summary above: how it works, who it affects and what each part actually does.
Direct links to the current provisions in A New Tax System (Wine Equalisation Tax) Act 1999.
Zoe has indexed the source text for search and analysis. Use the official register for the original document and download formats.
View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
Businesses can only quote if they intend to:
Warning: Quoting when you're not entitled to is an offence — 20 penalty units (currently around $6,600).
If WET is accidentally paid twice on the same wine, or if wine is returned or defective, businesses can claim wine tax credits to get that money back. These credits are processed through the GST system.
Small wine producers (like boutique wineries) can get a rebate (refund) of WET paid, up to a capped amount. This is designed to support Australia's smaller wine industry.
Imported wine goes through a separate process — WET is triggered when the wine is cleared through Australian customs (called "local entry"). There are over a dozen different customs situations that can trigger this liability.
WET is incorporated into the GST payment system — if you're registered for GST, you report and pay WET on your regular Business Activity Statement (BAS).