Does sugar or honey sugar or honey sweeten the beer? The answer is not easy. This issue has been under discussion for a long time. The judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU seemed to resolve doubts and to generate significant tax savings for the brewing industry. A favorable ruling was issued at the perfect moment – taste beer in the summer is a good profit. The bad news for the industry is that the European Commission can change the law and make the judgment of the TEU irrelevant.
Accise for raspberry beer
The case went all the way to the Luxembourg tribunal. The ruling of the TEU was a great news for beer producers across the EU. The hit wanted to get a sign. C-30/17 was released in the case of Piwowarska Company based in Poznań.
Setting excise duties on beer production is a bit complicated. Without going into the nuances, you could say that one from the key information is the quantity of finished product, i.e. after fermentation. On this basis, the amount of excise duty to be paid shall be determined. Some manufacturers add sweet flavours to a beverage that has already fully fermented. Fiscous would like this operation to result in more excise duty. The beer industry disagrees.
The case went all the way to the Luxembourg tribunal. The ruling of the TEU was a great news for beer producers across the EU. The hit wanted to get a sign. C-30/17 was released in the case of Piwowarska Company based in Poznań.
The court has to be on our side.
Flavour beer excise on a new basis could save millions of dollars each year. It is not difficult to know that joy for one party would represent a measurable financial loss on the part of the State budget. However, the European Commission found that not all was lost.
The tripartition of power is that one state body forms a law and another establishes a binding interpretation of the rules. The legislature should be able to respect judgments of judicial authority even if it disagrees with them. In this case, things are likely to be different.
European Commission removes doubts
The European Commission cannot amend or recognise the judgment of the TEU, which does not mean that there is no room for manoeuvre. You can always change the law. According to the EC plans, the issue of excise duty on sweetened beer will be regulated unequivocally and without doubt. However, the change will go in the opposite direction of a ruling which is favourable to producers. The addition of the flavour to the finished product will be clearly defined as an event increasing excise duty.
Can Polish sugar beer producers expect a tax refund?
If someone pays an excessive tax, they can claim a refund. The judgment of the TEU gives the opportunity to consider that some producers have overpaid excise duty. However, obtaining a refund can be difficult.
Excise, like VAT, is a tax to be charged to the consumer. It follows from this that too high excise duty was actually paid by the customer in the store rather than by a beer entrepreneur. Any return on the surplus should go to the beer buyer instead of the producer. This is the logic behind the overpaid excise duty for all retail clients. Beer producers are not deprived of the chance of multi-million-dollar excise returns, but this may be very difficult due to the case law of courts in similar cases.
Fruit beer is not a particularly harmful beverage. The creation of excessive tax barriers here seems questionable. Much more controversial is the strategy of "fixing" unwanted sentences using immediate changes in law.