jasdpace@gmail.
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If a bottle of wine sells for €20, how much of this is tax in:
(a) an off-license
(b) a restaurant
(a) an off-license
(b) a restaurant
Tax on a bottle of wine
- Thread starter jasdpace@gmail.
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The markup is going to be different depending on the outlet - e.g. generally a lot higher in a restaurant than an off-license.
There's also MUP to be considered when looking at the price that the customer pays.
Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018, Section 11
The electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB) comprises the Acts of the Oireachtas (Parliament), Statutory Instruments, Legislation Directory, Constitution and a limited number of pre-1922 Acts.
www.irishstatutebook.ie
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I still don't understand why the government taxes a product that if consumed as it has been by most people for thousands of years is perfectly healthy & harmless. MUP is even more odious as its proceeds go straight to the retailer. It's when pandering to vested retail interests meets puritanical zealotry, lazy "health policy" and patronising class snobbery. Alcohol abuse is a problem but it should be addressed without this kind of collective punishment.
And if it is sparkling... prepare to pay almost double. Because... well there's no real reason other than it being seen as more of a luxury.
www.checkout.ie
Irish Consumers Pay €3.19 On Tax Per Bottle Of Wine, Report Shows | Checkout
Irish consumers pay €3.19 on tax per every standard bottle of wine.
www.checkout.ie
Governments tax lots of things that have been around for a long time.
They collect tax to fund the running of the country.
https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health.
Low Public Awareness of the Alcohol-Cancer Link
Scoping review of 45 recent studies suggests that the public should be better informed.
www.univadis.com
Mup does not go to the retailer.
The issue was that alcohol was being used as a loss leader and being sold extremely cheaply to get you into a store and buy other products.
This in turn was leading to health issues and higher levels of alcohol dependence.
The mup won't have much affect on those already with dependency, but certainly the latest research from Scotland is that it has been working by seeing less people becoming dependent on alcohol and that is certainly a good thing.
The retailers now discount other products to get you in.
MUP goes exclusively to the retailer, which is why the retail lobby generally supported it. Most people incorrectly think it's a tax.
In a way it does, but retailers were using alcohol as a promotional tool. In some cases it was being sold for literally just the duty and vat amount. This "promotion" budget has simply moved to other goods.
You may have noticed that the really cheap plonk has disappeared off the shelves - retailers did not increase the price, they simply delisted the very cheap stuff.
And the better quality wines, beers and spirits have not increased in price much - (far lower than inflation).
My favourite everyday red wine - Aldi Valpocella Ripasso - is still 10.99
That was the argument but to my mind it reeks of class snobbery. Most people who buy wine below 10 Euro aren't alcoholics, they just happen not to be rich. Acohol in Ireland has never been cheap to begin with (the most expensive in the EU even before MUP). MUP means that a cleaner on minimum wage who enjoys half a bottle of wine in the evening now has to work around 25 minutes to afford this - twice as long as before and the proceeds don't even benefit society as they are pocketed by retailers.
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MUP was a creative way by government to raise alcohol prices and stop the loss leader practices. Adding another €1 via excise would of have less of an effect.
MUP does go to the retailer.
If there was a concern about below cost selling, the government could have - at the stroke of a pen, restored the ban on below cost selling. Instead they took years to get MUP in.
The research from Scotland is very dubious given what else has been going on in society such as lockdowns and a general trend in reduced alcohol consumption - also, alcohol in Scotland was significantly cheaper than Ireland.
The major political reason for bringing in MUP was plainly as a sop to the pub lobby. That is what got it across the line. The health reason was to give 'cover' to that.
Wine wasn't the target. Cheap vodka and slabs of beer were the target.
Preventing below cost selling would not work as at absolute cost price, cheap alcohol was still very cheap.
And it's a misconception that alcohol here is the most expensive. If anything, before mup it was probably one of the cheapest in Europe if you use a more accurate measurement of affordability.
In simple terms, the number of minutes you need to work for a person on average after tax salary to buy alcohol was, and still is, one of the lowest in Europe.
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I expect the figures there are probably using 'Leprechaun' economics and mathematics.
I've been to Denmark, hardly a low cost country, and the alcohol was cheaper in the supermarkets than here pre MUP.
Similarly supermarkets in France, wines for a fraction of the price v here. Bottles of drinkable wine for 2 euros. Spirits significantly cheaper also.
In Germany, drinkable beers for 80c a can.
In Spain and Italy prices even lower across the board.
I'm not comparing our prices with Poland or Latvia, but with peer EU countries, wealthy Western European economies.
In the face of that, to call alcohol here as one of the cheapest in Europe pre-MUP is without foundation and nobody with any actual experience of buying across Europe could find it credible. Academic analysis and cherry picking of figures completely disconnected from reality.
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No amount of alcohol is "healthy" - it's a drug that we use for recreation, not a vitamin or mineral that we need to survive. The industry has a long track record of claiming otherwise, e.g. "Guinness is good for you" or the nonsense about red wine. Alcohol has many positives but the negatives carry huge costs for society and the economy. The bizarre reaction that people have to MUP illustrates the distorted relationship we have with alcohol.
Whatever about the pub lobby or political reasoning, the research from Scotland and elsewhere is clear that MUP has significant public health benefits. The most recent studies have taken into account lockdowns, etc. and they still show big improvements.
The research you seem to refer to was published by Public Health Scotland (a government body). And even they are less than fully enthusiastic. To quote them directly,"For those people with alcohol dependence there was limited evidence of any reduction in consumption and there is some evidence of consequences for those with established alcohol dependence on low incomes, that led them to prioritise spending on alcohol over food." They do claim a decline in aggregate alcohol consumption, but as odyssey06 says it's been declining everywhere for quite a while now and that general trend is statistically hard to separate from specific MUP effects.
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I didn't refer to any specific research so no idea why you are quoting that.
And no clue as to what the issue is with something coming from a government body.