British drinkers are charged 13 TIMES more beer duty than the Germans and the second highest rate in Europe
German drinkers are paying just 4p a pint in tax compared to 52p in the UK
Average pint of beer in Britain now £3.26 while German bars charge £2.20
Britain’s levy is only topped by Finland where there is a 65p tax per pint
Source: Daily Mail
By Julian Robinson for MailOnline
8 November 2015
British drinkers are charged 13 times more beer duty than the Germans and the second highest rate in Europe, it has been revealed.
German drinkers pay just 4p a pint in tax compared to 52p in the UK where an average pint now costs £3.26.
The levy is only topped by Finland which charges 65p, according to the British Beer and Pub Association.
Drinkers in Romania, Spain, Luxembourg and Bulgaria also pay just 4p a pint while the likes of France, Holland, Italy and Denmark all charge less than Britain.
The average price of a pint of beer in Germany is just £2.20 while Spanish bars charge £1.74.
The figures come despite beer duty having fallen by 1p in the past three Budgets – and amid calls to support the struggling pub trade.
Brigid Simmonds of the British Beer and Pub Association, told the Sunday People said: ‘We need the Government to support pubs.’
In December it was reported that more than 6,000 pubs had shut over the past eight years thanks to sky-high taxes and government red tape.
The smoking ban, increases in alcohol duty and declining real wages since the recession have directly contributed to more than half of all closures since 2006.
The Institute of Economic Affairs said that taxes on drink in the UK are so high that British drinkers pay 40 per cent of the amount raised in alcohol duty raised across the whole of the EU.
The think tank called for an end to the thrust of recent government policy which it said had actively discouraged people from visiting their local.
Earlier this year a report revealed how drinkers in England pay billions of pounds more in alcohol taxes every year than they take out in healthcare, police and other costs.
The cost of alcohol abuse – including treatment on the NHS and the amount spent tackling booze-fuelled crime – amounts to £3.9 billion each year.
But the Treasury receives revenues from alcohol taxes amounting to some £10.4 billion, according to a report by the Institute of Economic Affairs.