Wine drinkers set to pay more tax

The government is exploring a new tax on strong alcoholic drinks.

If you enjoy a nice bottle of wine, chances are you may soon need to shell out more for your bottle of plonk, after a government minister suggested a new tax may be introduced.

A super-strength tax

The government has already introduced a levy on ‘super-strength’ lager. Back in March the Chancellor, George Osborne, announced there would be a 25% rise in the tax on beer containing more than 7.5% alcohol, the equivalent of an extra 25p per can.

And now the Department of Health has confirmed it would like to see that extended.

According to Anne Milton, the minister for Public Health, the department is in talks with the Treasury about the possibility of further levies, arguing that super-strength taxes are a step in the right direction.

She highlighted that the alcohol industry had already reacted to the levy on beer, cutting the alcohol strength to fall below the new duty level, and suggested this would continue if extended to other forms of booze.

Currently, it is unclear exactly where the government will draw the line on what constitutes a ‘strong’ wine. However, Milton did point out that the average bottle of wine is now around 12.5% proof, compared to 9% back in the 1970s.

The Alcohol Strategy

The government wants to publish an ‘Alcohol Strategy’ by the end of the year, which will outline its plans on how to tackle the nation’s drinking. That’s likely when we will find out more about whether it wants to go forward with an extension of the super-strength levy.

But the Department of Health has said that by December next year it wants 80% of alcoholic drinks to have warnings on their labels outlining how many units each bottle/can contains, and guidance on healthy consumption, in much the same way that cigarette packets now carry health warnings.

The UK and booze

It’s perhaps fair to say that, as a nation, the UK has a somewhat unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

According to the charity Alcohol Concern, more than ten million adults in England alone are now drinking more than the recommended daily limit, with two and a half million of them drinking double the limit.

It’s not just adults that are getting stuck into the booze – a study in 2009 found that half of 11-15 year-olds had already had an alcoholic drink.

Indeed, a study last year by polling firm Eurobarometer named Britain as the binge drinking capital of Europe, with 12% of us admitting to drinking seven or more drinks in a single session. Just a fifth of Brits said they had not consumed booze in the preceding year.

The cost of alcohol

And the cost of our drinking goes far beyond giving our livers a bit of a kicking.

Each year, cases related to alcohol cost the NHS a whopping £2.7bn. According to the NHS’s own figures, in 2009/10 there were more than a million alcohol-related admissions to hospital, a rise of 12% on the year before, and double the figure from 2002/3.

And according to Drink Aware, alcohol is a factor in one in three burglaries and half of all street crimes. Alcohol-related crime and disorder now costs the taxpayer as much as £13bn a year.

Booze is costing all of us, whether we are drinkers or not, in the wallet. Clearly something needs to be done.

The Scotland issue

The government should probably pay close attention to what is currently going on in Scotland when drawing up its Alcohol Strategy.

The governing Scottish National Party this week announced it was to have a second go at installing a minimum price for a unit of alcohol, in an attempt to battle the misuse of alcohol. The party failed in its initial attempt to install such a minimum price in the last parliament, but has refused to drop the issue.

If successful, it may provide a decent alternative to simply taxing the most alcoholic of wines, beers and spirits.

Tax, tax, tax

However, there will no doubt be irritation among many that once again the preferred option is to increase tax. For successive governments, the answer to all of society’s ills appears to be to have a fiddle with tax rates.

Concerned about the environment? Then let’s have some green taxes, to cut down on carbon emissions.

Kids getting fat? Why not introduce a fat tax on unhealthy foods, that will soon get the little porkers in shape!

People getting hammered and causing grief? Well, time to slap a new tax on booze!

Is hitting us with yet more new taxes really the way to deal with our alcohol issues? What do you think?

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