Rev. Rul. 55-361

Advice has been requested regarding the regauge of experimental packages of distilled spirits at the end of the experiments conducted in an internal revenue bonded warehouse for the purpose of determining the rate of loss sustained during storage.

The commercial gauging of spirits remaining in storage is prohibited by section 225.359 of the Regulations relating to the Warehousing of Distilled Spirits, which provides, `Spirits shall not be gauged except as required for official purposes.' Section 225.357 of the regulations makes provision for the proprietor of an internal revenue bonded warehouse to have admittance, in the presence of a storekeeper-gauger, to the warehouse and the spirits therein for the purpose of repairing cooperage, taking necessary measures to prevent waste of the spirits by leakage or for other legitimate purposes.

The gauging of spirits in the manner prescribed in the regulations, in specific instances such as loss or quality studies, etc., with the approval of the Assistant Regional Commissioner, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax, where the data obtained would be of interest to the Government as well as to the proprietor, comes within the scope of `other legitimate purposes' and therefore is not in violation of section 225.359 of the regulations. This work should be done at a time or times when a storekeeper-gauger is available for the required supervision