NYS $.05 Beer Bottle & Can Deposit

If you bottle or can your own beer and sell it out of your tap room or self distribute your beer, this is critical information you need know to become a deposit initiator in New York State.

From the NYS Dept. of Tax & Finance website: “New York State’s Returnable Container Act requires every deposit initiator to collect a $.05 deposit on beverage containers containing less than one gallon of carbonated soft drinks, beer, malt beverages, wine coolers or water, sold in New York.”

If you’re a deposit initiator you must:

• Register online as a deposit initiator before you make any sales
• Establish a refund value account
• Keep track of all deposits that you collect
• File quarterly reports and remit 80% of unclaimed deposits to the Tax Department online

Your Refund Value Account

You must establish a refund value account to hold the deposits for all beverage containers you sell and to reimburse customers on beverage containers they redeem. You will use this account to supply your filing information for each quarter and to transfer unclaimed deposits to the Tax Department.

• March 1 – May 31 / June 20
• June 1 – August 31 / September 20
• September 1 – November 30 / December 20
• December 1 – February 28 (29) / March 20

Penalties

Deposit initiators could be subject to penalties if they fail to comply with the law in any of these ways:

• failure to file beverage container reports,
• failure to make quarterly payments, or
• failure to maintain required accounts or records.

Penalties can be up to $1,000 for each quarter the failure occurs and an additional $1,000 for each quarter the failure continues. If you can establish that the failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect, the Tax Department will cancel the penalties.