Alcohol duty uprating - Budget 2024

Alcohol duty uprating

The government will increase the Alcohol Duty rates that apply to all non-draught products in line with Retail Price Index inflation. Alongside this, the government will also increase the simplified duty rates used for calculating excise duty on alcoholic products brought into Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales – not Northern Ireland) for personal use.

All changes to take effect on 1 February 2025. Below are the details:

Schedule 7 (Finance (No. 2) Act 2023) is amended so that the revised rates are:

·         £9.61 per litre of alcohol in the product for duty on all alcoholic products less than 3.5% alcohol by volume

·         £10.02 per litre of alcohol in the product for duty on still cider at least 3.5% but less than 8.5% alcohol by volume

·         £10.02 per litre of alcohol in the product for duty on sparkling cider at least 3.5% but not exceeding 5.5% alcohol by volume

·         £21.78 per litre of alcohol in the product for duty on beer at least 3.5% but less than 8.5% alcohol by volume

·         £25.67 per litre of alcohol in the product for duty on spirits, wine and other fermented products at least 3.5% but less than 8.5% alcohol by volume

·         £25.67 per litre of alcohol in the product for duty on sparkling cider exceeding 5.5% alcohol by volume but less than 8.5% alcohol by volume

·         £29.54 per litre of alcohol in the product for duty on all alcoholic products at least 8.5% but not exceeding 22% alcohol by volume

·         £32.79 per litre of alcohol in the product for duty on all alcoholic products exceeding 22% alcohol by volume

The government will however reduce all Alcohol Duty rates for draught products by 1.7% in cash terms (or 5.1% if compared to the baseline expectation that rates would be increased with the Retail Price Index). This will increase the value of Draught Relief from 9.2% to 13.9% for qualifying beer and cider products and from 23% to 26.9% for qualifying wine, other fermented products and spirits. Draught Relief provides a reduced rate of duty on draught alcoholic products below 8.5% alcohol by volume, where these are packaged in containers of at least 20 litres designed to connect to a pressurised gas delivery system or a pump delivery system for dispensing drinks. The reduction to duty rates on draught products will result in the average alcoholic strength pint (4.58% alcohol by volume) paying 1 pence less in duty.

Schedule 8 is amended so that the revised rates for products qualifying for Draught Relief are:

·         £8.28 per litre of alcohol in the product for the reduced rate of duty on all draught alcoholic products less than 3.5% alcohol by volume

·         £8.63 per litre of alcohol in the product for the reduced rate of duty on draught still cider at least 3.5% but less than 8.5% alcohol by volume

·         £8.63 per litre of alcohol on product for the reduced rate of duty on draught sparkling cider at least 3.5% but not exceeding 5.5% alcohol by volume

·         £18.76 per litre of alcohol in the product for the reduced rate of duty on draught beer, spirits, wine and other fermented products at least 3.5% (but less than 8.5%)

·         £18.76 per litre of alcohol in the product for the reduced rate of duty on sparkling cider exceeding 5.5% but less than 8.5% alcohol by volume