Senate approves excise bill

21 December 2021

Today the Senate approved the bill of State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief (D66) that amends the Excise Act. Vijlbrief's bill passed the House of Representatives on December 7, 2021.

The bill implements three European directives in Dutch law: the Alcohol Excise Directive (EU) 2020/1151, the Horizontal Excise Duty Directive (EU) 2020/262 and the Defense Efforts Directive within the Union Framework (EU) 2019/2235.

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 four beer excise categories that are currently used will be abolished and replaced by one tariff: €7.49 per hectolitre per volume percent alcohol. This has particular consequences for strong beers. They are taxed more heavily. In contrast, the excise duty on low-grade beer will be slightly lower. Changing the tax base is "budget neutral", which means that the total excise revenue remains the same with constant consumption. What consumers pay less for low-grade beer, they pay more for strong beer.

Source: eerstekamer.nl.

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