Alcohol duty

The tax base is not the quantity of liquid but the pure alcohol it contains, measured at 20 degrees Celsius. The standard rate is 1,303 euro per hectolitre of pure alcohol, that is 13.03 euro per litre (section 2 (1) AlkStG). The calculation runs: quantity in litres times alcoholic strength in percent divided by 100 times 13.03 euro.

Duty arises on the transfer into free circulation. For a tax warehouse that is the removal, unless a further duty suspension arrangement follows (section 18 (2) no. 1 AlkStG). The warehousekeeper is then the person liable. Placing goods into storage triggers no duty at all.

Two deadlines follow. For all removals within one month the duty has to be calculated and declared by the tenth day of the following month, and it falls due on the fifth day of the second month after it arose (section 19 (1) AlkStG). A removal in March is therefore declared by 10 April and paid by 5 May.

The first calculation error is confusing bottle volume with pure alcohol. 1,000 litres of goods are not 1,000 litres of tax base; at 40 percent ABV they are 400.

The second error arises when the alcoholic strength comes from the delivery note instead of the master data, because delivery notes often carry rounded figures and some brands switch from 40 to 35 percent between two bottling runs. The third is calculating per consignment instead of per product: three brands at 37.5, 40 and 43 percent produce three amounts that are only added up at the end.