Wine duty changes on 1st of February 2025

In August of last year, duty bands for alcoholic products were standardised, with the duty rate being calculated based upon the ABV of the product across wines, spirits, beers and other alcoholic beverages, rather than a mixture of the ABV and the product type, as had gone before. As part of these changes, a temporary easement was applied to wines between the ABV of 11.5% and 14.5% (inclusive) that were fixed at the 12.5% rate and there was some uncertainty as to whether the easement would indeed end on the 31st January 2025 as planned, or whether it would be continued (or the new wine duty regime scrapped entirely).

On the 30th October during the Autumn Budget, it was confirmed that as of 1st February 2025, the proposed changes to duty rates will indeed go ahead. The changes are similar to those which came into effect in August 2023, though brings about more clarity in terms of how much each band will rise. If the ABV fell within the band above, the duty rate remained static at £2.67 per 75cl bottle. This will no longer be the case and instead, just like any ABV outside of that temporary band, each 0.1% difference will now have its own distinct duty rate; in essence, the more alcoholic a wine is, the higher the rate of duty is levied. Whilst duty will increase in 0.1% ABV increments, wines are normally declared at 0.5% intervals, hence the bands highlighted below.

The duty rates will not only change according to their ABV, but will also increase in line with RPI inflation (3.65%). This means that if a wine is 12.5% ABV, on the 1st February 2025 it will attract a duty rate of £2.77 (instead of £2.67). For a product with an ABV of 13%, it will attract £2.88 in duty (instead of £2.67). So, what does all of this actually mean? In effect, the duty rate on wine is largely increasing – there are two bands which are decreasing from their current levels – and that the more alcoholic a wine is, the more duty it will attract.

Please see below a table which will highlight each ABV for the most common rates on 75cl bottles, between 8.5%-15%, what the current duty rate is and what the new duty rate will be, which will be applied to all relevant wines, from the 1st February 2025. Your account manager will shortly be in contact with you to provide you with more detail on how this affects the prices of the wines which you kindly order from us. In the interim, if you have any questions or would like to discuss your wine list and how these changes may affect you in more detail, please contact your account manager, or simply reply to this email and we will come back to you as soon as we can.

*the bands above reflect increments of 0.5%, but every additional 0.1% will incur higher duty