Duty
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Please note: New duty rates will be effective from 1 February 2025. Please find these at this link.
From 1st August 2023, excise duty on all alcoholic drinks is to be calculated according to alcoholic strength (previously excise duty was levied on beer and spirits according to strength and on wine, sparkling wine, fortified wine and made wine according to volume). Duty rates are calculated against rates per litre of pure alcohol although the reference rates are different according to strength and, in some instances, type of alcohol.
Disclaimer: The attached guidance contains the new alcohol duty rates (/litre of pure alcohol) announced by Government, and in effect from 1st February 2025. For demonstrative purposes, modelling has been produced to show what the effective duty charge on a range of different strength products would be, assuming that you are releasing single bottles from duty suspense.
Calculation of a per bottle or case rate is not, however, the correct process by which to calculate excise duty liability. The correct approach is to multiply the total volume of liquid released from duty suspense by ABV to achieve an lpa figure. This figure is then multiplied by the headline duty rate and rounded down to the nearest penny.
The question is neither “what is the bottle rate?” nor “what is the case rate?” but instead “what is the duty liability on the volume of pure alcohol being entered for home use?” . Calculation of bottle/case rates will inevitably incur small divergences. You may want to ascribe a notional bottle or case rate to your products for budgetary or forecasting purposes, but this will not always be completely accurate when compared to quantities released from duty suspense.