Wholesale liquor data reporting

Unless you are exempt, relevant licensees are legally required under the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998 to report their wholesale liquor sales data each year via Wholesale data reporting portal.

Failure to report your wholesale liquor sales data may result in Liquor Control Victoria (LCV) taking regulatory action against you.

A wholesale sales transaction is when one licensee supplies liquor to another licensee in their capacity as a licensee.

This data helps the Victorian Government estimate the alcohol consumed across Victoria and informs the development of alcohol related harm minimisation policies.

Licence types that must report

It is a requirement of the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998 that some licensees collect and submit their wholesale sales liquor data to us at the end of the most recently concluded financial year.

If you hold any of the following licences, you must submit your wholesale sales liquor transaction data to us:

• pre-retail licence
• producer's licence
• limited licence, including:
  • renewable limited
  • temporary limited
  • major event licence.

Note: If you have more than one licence in these categories, you are required to report for each applicable licence. For example, if a licensee has 4 producers licences they are required to report against each licence.

Exemptions to reporting

Generally, if you are an independent producer (not an importer), you will be exempt from submitting your wholesale sales data if you have produced less than the following in the most recently concluded financial year:

• 8,750 litres of spirits
• 28,500 litres of wine
• 100,000 litres of cider
• 100,000 litres of beer in a financial year

and

• you are not related to another corporate entity that produces more than any of these quantities (generally, being “related to a corporate entity” means you are either a holding company or subsidiary of another corporate entity, licensees need to seek their own independent legal advice if they are unsure).

Note: If you exceed the limit in one liquor category listed above, you must report all wholesale sale transactions to Victorian licensees for the most recently concluded financial year.

Importers are not exempt and will need to report their wholesale sales liquor data regardless of the amount of liquor sold to Victorian licensees for each financial year.

If you have self-identified as exempt, you must lodge this through the online portal. An exemption should be lodged each year even if your exemption status from the previous year has not changed. You can lodge your exemption request through the Wholesales sales data reporting portal.

Reporting requirements

You must report every wholesale sale liquor transaction made to another Victorian licensee including another wholesaler.

Transactions need to be reported as a combined total supplied to each licensee, not as individual transactions.

For example, if a winery supplies a single restaurant with 72 litres (in 750ml bottles) 4 times a year, this should be reported as one wholesale sale liquor transaction of 288 litres for the last financial year, not 4 individual transactions. You should combine the totals for all reporting requirements including volume, container size and total dollar amount.

Your report must include the following transaction details:

• the licence number of the licensee you supplied the liquor to
• the postcode of the premises where you delivered the liquor
• the type of liquor supplied (low strength beer, medium strength beer, heavy strength beer, wine, fortified wine, spirits, ready to drink spirits and/or cider)
• the volume in litres of each type of liquor that is supplied, and:
  • if beer is supplied, the volume supplied (split into containers with a capacity of 48 litres or less, or in containers more than 48 litres)
  • if wine or fortified wine is supplied, the volume supplied in a small container, large container or in bulk
  • the dollar value of each type of liquor supplied.

Your report does not need to include the following:

• interstate or international wholesale transactions
• export wholesale transactions
• retail transactions, such as:
• cellar door sales to the public at a producer’s own licensed premises
• sales to private individuals via an online store or mail order.

Definitions:

• small container means a container with a capacity of less than 2 litres
• large container means a container with a capacity of 2 litres or more but not exceeding 20 litres
• In relation to wine or fortified wine, bulk means to supply in a contain with a capacity more than 20 litres or for bottling elsewhere or for blending with another wine.

Building your CSV template and submitting your data

Wholesale sales data must be recorded on the CSV file template below and submitted via our online portal. We will not accept other file types or data that is submitted via email or mail.

It is important that you do not alter the CSV template in any way as this will result in validation failures which will need to be resolved prior to submitting your data.

If you create your own CSV file, you will need to ensure it is transferred and submitted using the approved template.

To assist with creating a CSV file in the same format as the template, we have developed an application that provides a user-friendly method for creating the CSV file.

The Wholesale Sales CSV Builder allows you to easily create the required CSV file that must then be uploaded to the Wholesale sales data reporting portal

For more information about creating a CSV file from another file type, see the Error messages submitting data section below.

Prior to submitting your report, you must ensure it:

• is submitted on our CSV template
• does not contain any blank lines
• has valid Victorian liquor licence numbers (8 digits)
• has numeric, four-digit postcodes
• has the appropriate values for each dollar and volume pair. You can have a non-zero volume and a zero-dollar value, but not a zero volume and a non-zero-dollar value.

Blank dollar and volume values will be taken as zero values.

Dollar signs are allowed only in dollar columns.

Once you have completed your CSV file, you will need to submit this via the Wholesales sales data reporting portal.

For step-by-step instructions on using the portal, see: Reporting wholesale data guide

If you receive any error messages when uploading your data, please refer to the Error messages submitting data section below.

We may contact you directly to verify the accuracy of your submitted data or to ensure, if you have lodged an exemption, that this has been correctly assessed.

If you suspect you have made an error in the provision of your data and have already submitted your report, you can make changes to your report and re-submit this to the portal any time before the portal closing date. This will replace the file previously submitted.

You may also contact us for assistance.

Once you have submitted your data, we consolidate and de-identify the information.

We do not publish this data or provide data associated with individual licences.

To read our privacy statement, see the information privacy policy for the Department of Justice and Community Safety.

Failure to submit data

Wholesale sales data must be reported each year under the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998. Failure to do so may result in LCV taking disciplinary action.

Frequently asked questions

Holding more than one licence required to report data

You must associate individual relevant liquor licences to your account on the wholesale liquor portal. Once these are associated, you then need to submit a transactions report or an exemption for each licence.

For a step-by-step guide on how to register and associate your licenses on the wholesale data reporting portal, see: Reporting wholesale data guide

Reporting volume

Volume amounts supplied by liquor type need to be reported separately.

Beer must be reported by:

• its strength (low, medium and heavy)
• how it is supplied (in containers less or greater than 48 litres).

Wineries are required to report wine volume supplied by container, including:

• small containers of less than 2 litres
• large containers of 2 litres or more but less than 20 litres
• bulk, greater than 20 litres or for bottling elsewhere or for blending with another wine.

The container sizes are stated in the column headers of the CSV file and defined in the regulations, see: Liquor Control Reform (Wholesale liquor supply information) Regulations 2015.

Goods and Services Tax (GST)

The total dollar amount should include GST and must also include any other taxes, rebates or credits applied to the sale. The total dollar amount must be for all sales in the most recently concluded financial year, not individual transactions.

The goods and services tax (GST) in Australia is a value-added tax of 10 per cent on most goods and services sales including liquor. More information about GST is available at ato.gov.au.

Wine Equalisation Tax (WET)

The total dollar value reported must include any taxes, rebates or credits applied to the sale. The total dollar amount must be for all sales in the most recently concluded financial year, not individual transactions.

Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) is a tax of 29 per cent of the wholesale value of wine. It is generally only payable if you are registered or required to be registered for GST. WET is designed to be paid on the last wholesale sale of wine, which is usually between the wholesaler and retailer.

More information about WET is available at ato.gov.au

Sale credits returned to distributor

The dollar value reported must include any credits (such as rebates or claim-backs) applied to the sale and returned to the distributor.

Finding a liquor licence number

You can find the liquor licence number of all permanent and temporary liquor licences on our website, see: Liquor licence portal

To search licensees that are inactive, closed or ceased trading see the Find a venue's liquor data

Wine stored in barrels

Wine stored in barrels is included in your production total for the most recently concluded financial year regardless of whether you have sold it or not. While it counts towards production for the purposes of the exemption, if it was not sold in the most recently concluded financial year, it does not need to be reported this year.

Grapes bought from other growers

The production figure of 28,500 litres of wine includes wine made from grapes bought from other growers. When self-assessing whether you are exempt, you must include all wine you produced in the most recently concluded financial year regardless of where you sourced the grapes from.

Bulk sales to other growers or winemakers

Your final wholesale sales data report must also include any sales to another wholesaler, grower or winemaker if they hold a Victorian liquor licence. You must report the volume and total dollar amount under the header ‘Wine, bulk, for bottling or blending elsewhere’. Remember, if your wholesale sales exceed the exemption amount in one category, your final wholesale report should include sales transactions for all liquor types.

Seasonal variance of wine production

The exemption amounts are for the most recently concluded financial year (1 July 2021 - 30 June 2022) regardless of seasonal conditions that may have impacted the quantity of wine produced.

Help and information

If you require help to complete your wholesale liquor data submission or self-identified exemption, you can contact us Monday – Friday, 9am-5pm on 1300 182 457. Alternatively, you can email contact@liquor.vic.gov.au.

We are unable to help you with:

• extensive technical, IT or accounting advice
• legal or business advice
• completing your wholesale sales report or lodging your self-identified exemption on your behalf.

Error messages submitting data

If you receive an error message when submitting your data, please refer to the following list of errors and common solutions to rectify these.

If you continue to get an error message after trying the above solutions, Contact us for support.

We aim to assist and provide a level of technical support and advice however, there are certain things we cannot do for you including:

• provide extensive technical, IT or accounting advice
• provide legal or business advice
• complete your wholesale sales report on your behalf.