When TTB accomplishes their goals, we all win

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) recently released their strategic plan for the next five years. Since what TTB does impacts everyone in the alcohol beverage industry, it’s useful to understand where they want to be in 2022.

In order to identify their goals and their operating environment, TTB conducted environmental scans, risk assessments, and interviewed senior leaders and strategic management personnel. They identified strategic priorities and assessed risks while keeping both internal and external factors in mind.

From this exercise, they defined five strategic goals. These goals, and whether or not TTB achieves them, has a far-reaching impact on our industry. We put together a summary of each of these goals and how they might affect you.

TTB wants to streamline permit applications to reduce applicant burden and use technology to minimize application errors and improve processing times. If they are able to meet this goal, it would increase TTB’s efficiency, optimize their electronic systems to improve their service, and hopefully, increase voluntary compliance.

TTB intends to provide a service that is both timely and consistent so that they can reduce the burden of resubmissions and employ risk-based marketing sampling and investigations to level the playing field on competition and encourage product integrity. This will certainly increase communication throughout the industry, improve policies, and enforce risk-based enforcement.

By updating filings, processes, technologies, enhancing analytics, and improving education and outreach, TTB is working to improve tax compliance. If TTB is successful in reaching their goal, the industry should notice a bump in efficiency, improved internal communication throughout the organization, and more businesses with the education and incentives to comply voluntarily.

With full integration of advanced analytics tools in their enforcement processes, TTB wants to improve the diversion detection and enforcement in the cross-border trade of alcohol and tobacco products. This will help encourage fair competition and reduce illicit trade rates.

In order to meet the rest of their goals, TTB needs a workforce that is up for the challenge. To prepare their team, they will conduct assessments of individual and organizational training needs and an increased availability of training opportunities to address skill gaps. They will have a special focus on building specialized technical expertise and critical leadership skills. A strong and more effective workforce means they will have improved employee retention and a rise in professional expertise.

Learn more about Avalara's Beverage Alcohol solution here.