What is the Grant?
The Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant (the grant) is an annual grant of up to $100,000 (GST exclusive) available to wine producers who operate a physical cellar door and meet all the eligibility criteria. Total funding under the grant program will be capped at $10 million each financial year. Therefore, if total applications exceed the cap during a period, each applicant’s grant will be reduced proportionally and applied at a consistent rate.
The grant is calculated at 29% of a wine producer’s rebatable domestic cellar door sales that are in in excess of $1,207,000 (GST exclusive) total rebatable wine & cellar door sales during the relevant financial year.
Why is the Grant available?
The grant is part of a coordinated suite of measures developed with the Australian wine industry after extensive reforms to the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) rebate program. The intention of the grant is to complement the $50 million Export and Regional Wine Support Package also being implemented by Wine Australia from 2016 to 2020 to offset some of the impact of the reduction of the WET rebate cap in 2018.
The objective of the grant is to boost Australia’s international wine tourism experiences by supporting the cellar door wine producers who are instrumental in attracting visitors to Australian wine regions.
Recent research has indicated there is a shift away from winery visitors coming only to taste wines, to those wanting to participate in an overall experience. Further research has shown that wine related tourism has increased by 12.5% in the two years from 2014-15 to 2016-17 which is a positive sign for the industry.
Who is eligible for the Grant?
To be eligible for the grant, applicants must meet all of the following criteria:
- be a wine producer
- be a legal entity registered for GST with an active ABN
- have made at least $1,207,000 (GST exclusive) in sales of rebatable wine in the relevant financial year
- accrue rebatable domestic cellar door1 sales in excess of the $1,207,000 (GST exclusive) threshold in the relevant financial year
- have paid the WET on all eligible sales used as part of the application
- have owned or leased a physical cellar door in Australia in the relevant financial year, and/or their related entities have owned or leased a physical cellar door in Australia in the relevant financial year.
- have a liquor licence valid in the relevant financial year.
When is the Grant available?
The grant applications will open for Round 1 on 1 July 2019 and will close on 30 September 2019. If an applicant is successful, the grant will be paid on 15 November 2019.
Similar dates will apply for subsequent years and be made publicly available in the first half of the 2020 calendar year.
How do you apply for the Grant?
The grant will be administered by Wine Australia from July 2019.
How can Nexia Edwards Marshall NT help you?
Please contact Sarah McEachern or your Nexia Edwards Marshall NT Adviser who will be able to assist you with checking your eligibility to claim the grant and assist with the application.
Case Study
An eligible Australian wine producer makes $1,100,000 (excluding GST) rebatable wine sales and an additional $200,000 (excluding GST) in cellar door sales during 2018/19. Note that 60% of the cellar door sales are physically made at the Cellar Door and 40% are made from mail order & online sales by customers who had previously visited the cellar door (they therefore meet the requirement to have more than 50% of sales from the physical cellar door). The excess rebatable cellar door sales are $93,000 calculated as [$1,100,000 + $200,000 – $1,207,000].
The eligible grant is $93,000 x 29% rebate = $26,970.
1 – At least 50% of the rebatable domestic cellar door sales used in the grant application must consist of sales from the physical cellar door.
