Beer duty

For beer it is not the alcohol that counts but the original gravity. The tax base is hectolitres of beer and degrees Plato, and the standard rate is 0.787 euro per hectolitre and degree Plato (section 2 (1) BierStG). A strong bock therefore pays considerably more than a light lager, even where the alcohol content barely differs.

Smaller breweries pay less. Independent breweries with a total annual output below 200,000 hectolitres receive reduced rates, graduated in steps of 1,000 hectolitres and halved in the most favourable case (section 2 (2) BierStG). What counts is the output of the brewery, not the quantity a trader buys.

The calendar is tighter than for spirits. The duty declaration is due by the seventh day of the following month, extended to the tenth by the main customs office in justified cases, and the duty falls due on the 20th day of the following month (section 15 (1) BierStG). Quantities have to be broken down by tax class.

The degree Plato figure is missing. Purchasing rarely asks for it, the label does not carry it, and without it neither the duty calculation nor the stock ledger works. The figure comes from the brewery's technical data and belongs in the order.

The second error is classification. Beer means the products of heading 2203 of the Combined Nomenclature and mixtures with non alcoholic drinks that fall under heading 2206 (section 1 (2) BierStG). For a shandy that is clear, for heavily flavoured mixtures it is not, and a wrong classification only surfaces during an audit, with retroactive effect.