Beverage tax

The beverage tax was a tax on alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages for consumption on the spot.

Germany

Legal regulation

The beverage tax in the Federal Republic of Germany is one of the municipal consumption taxes and is levied exclusively by the municipalities .

The basic idea behind the beverage tax is to skim off the tax force that arises in the pubs through the beverage sales.

The legal basis for their collection are the local tax laws of the federal states and the respective statutes of the cities and municipalities.

history

The beverage tax in Germany goes back to forms of taxation in the 12th century such as ungeld or excise .

On the basis of the Reichsfinanzausgleichsgesetz (Reich Finance Equalization Act) , the municipalities were given the right to levy a uniform tax on all drinks consumed locally in 1923. However, this could not prevail, so that in 1927 only the municipal beer tax remained, which was abolished in 1930 by the updated beer tax law .

In the municipal tax laws that came into being in the Federal Republic of Germany, the beverage tax was introduced in the form of the dispensing tax. In 1955 there were 2,350 municipalities in the Federal Republic of Germany that had introduced a beverage tax as a municipal consumption tax.

In 1984 the beverage tax was only levied in 13 cities in Hesse and Lower Saxony, apart from Hamburg. The tax rates fluctuated from 7.5 percent in Braunschweig to 11 percent in Wiesbaden. While after the reintroduction of the beverage tax in Hamburg at the beginning of 1984 all publicly served beverages were again subject to a beverage tax of 10 percent, there was, for example, an exemption from the tax for beer in the cities of Hildesheim and Wiesbaden and in Frankfurt am Main for cider. In 1984 the food-pleasure-restaurants union (NGG) sharply criticized the reintroduction of the beverage tax in Hamburg, as this threatened the restaurants with sales losses of up to 20 percent. Again, Hamburg reckoned with annual additional income of up to 36.6 million DM.

The beverage tax was abolished in Wiesbaden in 1994 and in Hanau and Frankfurt am Main in 2000.

In 2000, the beverage tax in Germany totaled 6.0 million euros and was already a de minimis tax at that time .

On December 31, 2009 Offenbach am Main was the last city in Germany to abolish the beverage tax of 5 percent. On January 1, 1992, the city only reintroduced the tax at a rate of 10 percent.

Austria

In Austria, a beverage tax of 10% of the sales price was levied on all alcoholic beverages until 2000. As a result of a ECJ ruling of March 9, 2000, according to which the Austrian beverage tax was not compatible with the EU consumption tax directive, it was abolished.

15 percent of the drinks tax levied in violation of the EU, amounting to EUR 200 million, i.e. EUR 30 million, was subsequently paid back to the food trade.

However, since the taxation of alcoholic beverages in catering establishments is permissible, the municipalities are interested in reintroducing it for fiscal reasons, but the catering trade is not.

Web links

Federal Ministry of Finance : Taxes from A to Z 2018 edition

Individual evidence

↑ Tax dictionary: Beverage Tax Manager Magazin , December 5, 2002

↑ Michael Horak: Beverage Tax Retrieved April 23, 2018.

^ Beverage tax: The tithe from thirst Der Spiegel , January 16, 1984

↑ Gastronomy: Drinks tax will be abolished FR , December 11, 2009

↑ Articles of Incorporation on the Collection of a Beverage Tax ( Memento of the original from April 23, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Beverage tax statute of the city of Offenbach from December 12, 1991 @1@ 2