As of 2024 beer excise based on alcohol content

7 December 2021

The majority of the House of Representatives approved today the bill of State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief (D66) that amends the Excise Act.

The most prominent modification is that the base for calculating the beer excise duty will be changed from degrees Plato to alcohol content. This change will come into effect on January 1, 2024. The State Secretary proposed January 1, 2023, but most parties in Parliament wanted to move this date.

The change to a levy based on alcohol content means a simplification for Customs because the alcohol content is easier to find out than the Plato content. By switching to alcohol content as the taxable amount, the number of tariffs can be reduced to one: €7.49 per hectolitre per volume percent alcohol.

Another part of the bill did not make it. The majority in the House of Representatives cancelled the proposal by State Secretary Vijlbrief to scrap the excise tax discount for small brewers. In practice, this means that brewers brewing less than 200,000 hl of beer per year will continue to maintain the current 7.5% discount on beer excise tax rates.

The Netherlands Institute for Alcohol Policy STAP is pleased with the amendment to the Excise Act, because there will be as of 2024 a beer excise tax tariff based on the alcohol content. This new structure can be seen as a step towards an excise tax system whereby all alcoholic beverages, regardless of how they are made, are taxed on the basis of alcohol content.

The bill now goes to the Senate. The Senators can only accept or reject it. Amendments are no longer possible.

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