One week until alcohol duties go up on wines,spirits and strong beers

To be clear, the 10-20% increase is on the amount of duty charged, not the total price of the bottle.

The duty on spirits is going from £28.74 to £31.64 per litre of pure alcohol.
So on a 0.7 litre bottle of 40% whisky the duty would currently be £8.05, and new duty will be £8.86, an increase of 81p.
On a 0.7l bottle of 38% vodka the duty would be £7.64, and new duty will be £8.42, an increase of 78p.

Wine duty is currently £2.98 per litre for still wines between 5.5% and 15% ABV. It is going to become £28.50 per litre of pure alcohol, and "Wine between 11.5% and 14.5% ABV will be treated as if it is 12.5% ABV". So most wine would have had £2.09 duty, and will now have £2.49, an increase of 40p per bottle. (edited)

Meanwhile in LIDL, La Nucia, Spain....



And Gibraltar...
(edited)

If they want to help keep pubs etc, then it would have been better to raise the tax on anything bought outside of a pub for off drinking purposes, thus encouraging more to go to the local by decreasing the variation.
But why is beer rated higher than cider if the ABV is below 5.5%, yet beer is lower in instances above 5.5%. And where would it fall if you happen to brew something that is exactly 5.5%?

A sad day for my bar stocks

However, bear in mind that the increase in duty rates on 1st August is applicable to goods entering the country on or after that date. Supermarkets already have a stock of wine and spirits which have the current rates applied to them. As alcohol is brought in after 1st August the higher rates will start to trickle through into shelf prices, which should be over the next few months. Unless, of course, the supermarkets increase prices immediately and rake in extra profits. But they’re on the side of the customer and would never do that, would they ……? (edited)