Excise duty rates in the EU and UK

Some more numbers I've plucked from the BBPA Statistical Handbook 2025. This time comparing the tax rates amongst European countries.

I've sorted the table in ascending order of beer tax rates. It makes for interesting reading. No surprise that the UK and Ireland are at the top end. With only Finland having higher tax.

I already knew that beer tax was low in Germany. But not that low. Only in one country in the table is it lower: Bulgaria. And even then only marginally so. I'm gobsmacked that the tax is higher in Czechia. Who would have guessed that?

Here in the Netherlands, while the tax is a third of that in the UK, it's still quite high compared to most EU countries. And four times higher than in Germany. It's no wonder beer is so much cheaper in German supermarkets than here.

I was surprised at how many EU countries have zero tax on wine. Just over half - 14 of 27. Pretty much all of them being countries which produce large quantities of wine. With the one exception of Luxembourg. 

Excise duty rates in the EU and UK
Country	Beer pence per pint at 5% abv	Wine pence per 75cl bottle at 12% abv	Spirits £ per 70cl bottle at 40% abv	VAT
Bulgaria	4.4	0	1.3	20
Germany	4.5	0	3.1	19
Luxembourg	4.5	0	2.6	17
Spain	4.7	0	2.2	21
Romania	6.1	1.3	2.5	19
Czechia	7.2	0	3.6	21
Slovakia	8.5	0	3.5	23
Malta	10.9	12.9	3.2	18
Hungary	11.2	0	3.5	27
Austria	11.4	0	2.8	20
Belgium	11.4	47	7	21
Portugal	11.5	0	3.8	23
Croatia	12.6	0	1.9	25
Cyprus	14.3	0	2.2	19
Poland	14.5	32.5	4.4	23
Denmark	15.5	94.8	4.7	25
Italy	17.1	0	2.4	22
France	19.3	2.6	4.5	20
Netherlands	19.3	60.1	4.3	21
Latvia	23.3	84.2	4.6	21
Lithuania	26.1	159.5	6.5	21
Greece	28.5	0	5.7	24
Slovenia	30.8	0	3.3	22
Estonia	33.3	102.4	4.9	22
Sweden	47.9	164.2	10.9	25
UK (draught beer)	53.3	265.9	9.2	20
Ireland	53.6	266.8	10	23
UK (packaged beer)	61.9
Finland	86.1	286.4	13	25.5
Source:
BBPA Statistical Handbook 2025, page 58.