Thread by @DanielLambert29

This week saw the tories announcement of major changes to the way alcohol taxation system will work from Feb ‘23. At first the hype created by the treasury’s PR department was like they has reinvented the wheel. What they had actually done was pull a major con on the public. 1/14

The proposal to reduce and remove sparkling wine super tax will cost the U.K. £119m PA approximately, however the new still wine taxes will yield an extra £4.5BN. But the system from an importation point of view will not be workable. 2/14

Currently their are three main tax codes for duty on wine, 411,413 & 415. These are the bands from 8.5% to 22% and sparkling wine in its own band. Most still wine is tax at £2.23 per 75cl bottle and £2.86 for sparkling. Above 15% still is £2.96. 3/14

The new still wine tax system will tax wine differently at every 0.5% ABV increase from 8.5% to 22%. So as said completely unworkable in the real world and a massive duty increase. 4/14

Its true that fizz having a super tax was a complete nonsense but this is something no government has wanted to change for generations. Bearing in mind Prosecco with 63% of all fizz sales in the U.K. takes the brunt of this tax, one must wonder why it was not changed sooner. 5/14

However whilst the old system was poorly thought through the new system will be catastrophic if actually applied. Moving from 3 tax points to 27 will be impossible to manage or police. 6/14

This proposal has clearly be put together, as ever, by someone who doesn’t actually understand what’s involved in shipping wine. It’s probably the same person who didn’t understand the implications of Vi1 & once the industry pointed the issues out the government u-turned. 7/14

However these basics points still don’t address the massive lie about the strategy to pretend the government has reduced tax on wine. It’s actually the complete opposite. Moreover will make wine in the U.K. the most taxed in Europe. 8/14

With these new duties from February 2023 a regular bottle of wine of 13.5% will be increasing by over £1.20 per bottle once you add VAT and margins on retail prices. 9/14

Once again bearing in mind Wine is the UK’s alcoholic drink of choice, this massive 40% increase in tax should concern all sectors of society. 10/14

Now I do believe that nobody in the MSM has reported these facts but has focused on the now meaningless reduction on sparkling wine. 11/14

When you look at this and add the Relentless issues from Brexit such as shipping delays, unless unnecessary paperwork and a new customs declaration system going live next year, you do wonder if they want to destroy the entire sector! 12/14

Once again it’s seems to me the wine trade needs to act as one & take this government on as they are clearly incapable of doing the right thing & only want to tax it to death. The lack of imagination in government is breathing taking. 13/14

Finally my understanding is the removal of Sparkling Super Tax is being boasted as a Brexit divided. Again this is a lie, the government has always been able to increase or lower taxes on wine regardless of EU membership. #thebigwinelie 14/14