Excise duty on beverage containers – how much is it, and what is the packaging subject to it?
Importers, producers and beverage packaging companies whose products include soft drinks and alcoholic drinks need to pay the excise duty on beverage containers. The duty must be paid on retail containers such as bottles and cans (=tins). In general, this duty payment is made together with the duty payments for soft drinks and alcohol.
Who is liable to pay the duty?
Typical payers of the excise duty on beverage containers are manufacturers of alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, importers of these products, companies in charge of product packaging. The payers include breweries, restaurants, cafés and retail grocery stores, and others.
The duty does not concern independent small producers of beverages and drinks. However, companies having the small producer status are required to apply for registration, and subsequently, verify their currently registered data and inform the Tax Administration of any changes once a year.
Are you an independent small producer? Read more — independent small producers
What kind of containers are subject to the duty?
In general, whenever the retail package or container is not covered by the Finnish deposit system of returnable cans and bottles, the duty must be paid. Beverage containers deemed as ‘retail packages’ are bottles, cans, etc. of max. 5 litres.
Please note that it is possible for a retail package to be intended for sale at cafés and restaurants exclusively, and not for sale in grocery stores, food supermarkets.
What the retail package contains and what the package is made of will determine whether it is subject to the duty. Containers subject to excise duty may be made of glass, plastic or aluminium, etc. However, the duty does not need to be paid if the raw material is liquid packaging carton entirely.
Packaging subject to the duty:
The excise duty on beverage containers must be paid in the case of:
- alcoholic beverages
- malt drinks
- water
- soft drinks, sodas, energy drinks
- juices, juice drinks, smoothies
- products based on coffee or tea
- sports drinks
- other non-alcoholic beverages
For more information and details, see Excise duty schedule (beverage containers).
Exempted types of beverage containers
No excise duty is payable on the following, when the packaging is:
- Manufactured of liquid package carton;
- Having more than 5 litres of beverage volume;
- Filled immediately before selling, and the beverage is intended for drinking immediately after purchase (such as the disposable cups and containers at fast‑food restaurants); or
- Accepted by the deposit system for returnable cans and bottles and are either reusable through re-filling or through recycling the container’s raw materials.
Example 1: A food supermarket buys soft drinks for selling to its customers, and the seller of the soft drinks is a Finnish manufacturer. The containers – plastic bottles – are accepted by the deposit system for returnable cans and bottles. There is no need for the supermarket to pay duty on the containers. In the same way, there is no need for the manufacturer corporation to pay the duty because the bottles are part of the deposit system.
Example 2: Another supermarket buys soft drinks also packaged in plastic bottles, but the seller is from outside Finland. These bottles are not covered and accepted by the Finnish deposit system for returnable cans and bottles, and as a consequence, this supermarket must pay excise duty on beverage containers for them.
Example 3: Yet another supermarket buys juices from a foreign seller. The containers are made of liquid packaging carton. There is no need to pay the duty for beverage containers. However, the supermarket must pay excise duty on soft drinks for the juices bought.
Containers of different types, that are included in Finland’s deposit-based system and that can be refilled or recycled are exempt from the excise duty. However, you need to include all the containers in your excise duty returns. Report them as duty-exempt containers.
You do not have to pay excise duty on beverage containers that satisfy these requirements:
- The deposit system of returnable containers is officially approved by the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment in Pirkanmaa (ELY); The Centre in Pirkanmaa provides information on approvals directly to the Tax Administration.
- Your company is a registered member of a community of producers.
- Your drink or beverage is an approved product within the deposit system.
The Province of Åland has a directory of drink producers of its own.
How much is the excise duty on beverage containers?
The duty is €0.51 per litre of beverage placed inside the container.
What do I need to do to submit a tax return and pay the excise duty?
The filing and payment schedule – including mode of payment – depends on whether your company is liable to pay excise duty regularly or casually, and whether you bought the products in the EU territory or outside of it.
Imported dutiable products are subject to the excise duty on soft drinks whether bought in the EU territory or outside of it.
- If your company brings drinks and beverages here from an EU country, you need to submit excise duty returns and make the duty payments to the Tax Administration.
- If your company imports them from non-EU countries, the products generally become subject to customs procedures, and you need to pay the excise duties to Finnish Customs. The only situation where the duties would have to be paid to the Tax Administration, not Customs, would arise when the customs clearance decision indicates a suspension of the duty payments.
For more information about the procedures, visit the Finnish Customs website.
The information recorded on your company’s Excise duty authorisation determines whether you report excise duties regularly or casually.
Regular payers of excise duties refers to producers and importers that have submitted an application for their role as a payer of duties, such as an authorised warehouse keeper or a registered consignee. In general, large breweries, producer companies of soft drinks, and wholesale corporations are regular payers of excise duties.
Casual payers refers to importers of soft drinks or alcohol having no excise duty authorisation, that is, they have no registration of an authorised warehouse keeper or of a registered consignee, etc. However, it is possible for a casual excise duty payer to maintain an ongoing, regular business activity with commercial operations with drinks and beverages. In general, small grocery stores, supermarkets, restaurants and cafés are casual payers of excise duties.
To casual payers of excise duties – how to proceed:
When you import any drinks or beverages into Finland, you need to submit an advance notice, and also an excise duty return, covering both the drinks and their containers.
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1
File an advance notice on beverage containers
You need to submit the notices before the products are dispatched or before their transportation to Finland begins. Advance notices are valid only once, and they only concern one dispatched lot.
If you are a producer of drinks, there is no need for you to submit an advance notice (that would concern your drinks).
Log in to MyTax to submit the notice.
How to find the advance notice in MyTax
Advance notices filed on a paper form are only accepted as an exception. See link at the bottom of the page.
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2
File an excise duty return and pay the duty
The due date for filing the return for the excise duty on beverage containers is the same as the due date for paying it. File the returns and pay the duties by the 12th day of the calendar month following the date when you received the consignment.
You can file and pay the excise duty in MyTax.
Alternatively, you can use the Tax Administration’s API to file your excise duty returns.
Paper forms can be used as an exception only. This means a situation where electronic filing would be impossible due to technical issues, etc.
To regular payers – how to proceed:
When you import any drink products into Finland, you are only expected to submit an excise duty return for the duty on the drinks and for the duty on beverage containers. In other words, there is no requirement to file an advance notice.
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File an excise duty return and pay the duty
If your company is an authorised warehouse keeper, submit the returns every month, and pay both the beverage containers duty at the time when the drink products get released from the tax warehouse to consumption.
If your company is a registered consignee, submit the return every month and pay the duty for the products received.
Make sure to submit the returns every month for the beverage containers duty although there would be no excise duty to pay for the month concerned.
Your due date for the returns and for paying the duties is the 12th day of the second calendar month following the reportable period. For purposes of reporting, the excise duty period is one month.
Example: For your operations in March, the due date for excise-duty filing and payment is 12 May.
You can file and pay the excise duty in MyTax.
Alternatively, you can use the Tax Administration’s API to file your excise duty returns.
Paper forms can be used as an exception only. This means a situation where electronic filing would be impossible due to technical issues, etc.
Further information and guidance
- Excise duty on beverage containers, table (Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish)
- Advance notice on products subject to excise duty (Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish)
- The tax return (Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish)
- “Deposit and return company” — Suomen palautuspakkaus (Palpa)
- Excise duty treatment of differences in inventories (Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish)
- Independent small producers (Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish)
- Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: facts about the extended producer responsibility
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