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TTB NEWSLETTER | Weekly News

October 9, 2020

IN THIS ISSUE

Greetings! This week’s top news includes the selection of Michael Warren as the head of our beverage formula office, a reminder that quarterly returns are due next week, and COLAs Online can now detect poor image quality.

MICHAEL WARREN SELECTED AS HEAD OF FORMULATION BRANCH

We are pleased to announce that Michael Warren has been selected as the new Assistant Director for Formulation in the Alcohol Labeling and Formulation Division. Mr. Warren, a former formulation specialist, has worked extensively with industry members on formula and other compliance issues, and he was instrumental in the development of Formulas Online.

DUE DATE FOR QUARTERLY FILERS IS NEXT WEEK

If you are an alcohol industry member who files tax returns quarterly, the due date for Q3 is next Wednesday, October 14.

Having difficulty paying your federal excise taxes?

If you are unable to pay taxes that TTB collects, you may be eligible under the Internal Revenue Code for an installment agreement, an extension of time to pay, or an offer in compromise. To minimize penalties and interest, file all required federal excise tax returns, even if you cannot pay the full amount due.

If you would like to discuss your financial hardship with TTB, contact us using our Financial Hardship Contact Request page.

COLAS ONLINE CAN NOW DETECT POOR IMAGE QUALITY

We’ve added a new feature to COLAs Online that will help ensure that the alcohol label image files you upload are of adequate quality for us to review the labels for compliance with the labeling regulations.  Checking image quality before you submit will greatly reduce how often your applications are returned for correction because of image quality issues.

Here’s how it works:

• Once you upload the labels, COLAs Online will analyze the file size and pixel count to estimate if the image will be clear enough for us for us to perform a thorough review.
• If a label file fails to meet the minimum standards, you’ll get an error message, and you’ll be prevented from attaching those files to your COLA application.
• You can then resize the files so they can be submitted with your application.

To ensure that every word is easy to read and that your files will be accepted, we recommend that files have:

• a resolution of at least 120 dpi
• a medium compression setting (for JPEG files), that is, at least 7 out of 10, or 70 out of 100

If you find that a JPEG file is still blurry, try saving it as PNG file.  Remember, each file must be no more than 1.5 MB in size.

See What’s New in COLAs Online for additional details.

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Please visit the homepage of TTB.gov for the most recent news, or visit the Contact Us page if you have any questions.