Rates of excisable goods. Increasing excise taxes on wine is a disservice for honest winemakers - opinion

"Vedomosti". The increase seems small, but it will greatly affect both the industry and the structure of alcohol consumption by Russians.

What do they offer

• From 2020, excise duty rates on still wines will be increased from 18 to 31 rubles per liter, on sparkling wines - from 36 to 40 rubles per liter.
• At the same time, a well-known loophole is being closed: the excise tax on wine drinks and carbonated "pseudo-champagne" without the addition of alcohol will be equalized with excise taxes on wine. Now there is a single excise rate for wine drinks - 18 rubles.
• Excisable products include grapes used for the production of wine, wine materials or full-cycle alcoholic beverages. Winemakers producing wine from Russian grapes will receive a tax deduction with a multiplier, while importers and those who use imported wine materials will pay excise duty at the full rate.

Who will lose

Winemakers believe that excises are already high, and their increase will inevitably lead to an increase in retail prices and a deterioration in the structure of consumption.

• The industry will withstand an increase in the excise tax on still wines to a maximum of 20 rubles at a time and up to 25 rubles in the future, experts say. Otherwise, the demand for inexpensive Russian and imported products will fall, and the consumer will again look at stronger and more harmful drinks, says Veniamin Grabar, president of the Ladoga company.
• An increase in the excise duty will again lead to an increase in counterfeit goods and the withdrawal of more expensive wine drinks into the shadows. After the appearance of the “wine drink” category in 2012, counterfeit products migrated to it anyway. Now it is about 20 million decaliters (dal) per year, or only half the Russian production of still and sparkling wines combined (43 million decalitres).
• Experts do not count on the transition from wine drinks to wine for the majority of consumers of this product.

Who won

Producers of wine from domestic raw materials are in an unconditional win. The only problem is that so far there are only 1.5-2% of the production volume.

• One of such companies is Pavel Titov's Abrau Durso, which recently agreed with the largest Russian retailer X5 Retail Group on the development of the Russian Loza wine brand. The price should not exceed 300 rubles per bottle.
• Benefits for domestic wine materials should stimulate the planting of vineyards and reduce imports. Now in Russia there are about 95,000 hectares of vineyards, in 2018 almost 7,000 hectares were planted. Last year, Russia imported 11.6 million decaliters of wine materials, the main suppliers are Spain, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Uruguay.

According to the Ministry of Health, over the past 8 years, alcohol consumption in Russia has decreased by almost 2 times: from 18 to 9.3 liters (in terms of alcohol) per capita. But this is due to the fact that the consumption of strong drinks is declining at a faster pace. According to Gfk, wine consumption increased by 9% in 2017. Russian production of still wines in 2018 decreased by 4.9%, sparkling wines by 2.6% - with an increase in imports.

What's in it for me

We can expect that quality wine will rise in price a little more, cheap ones will become worse, and alcoholic soda disguised as champagne will completely disappear into the shadows. Not counting the disappearance of Georgian products from the shelves - but already.

Sergei Smirnov

The authorities proposed to cancel benefits for producers of Russian branded alcohol

Domestic winemakers producing protected wines will lose reduced excise rates, follows from the “Basic Directions of Budget and Tax Policy”. Equalization of excises on Russian and imported wines requires WTO rules

Photo: Sergey Malgavko / TASS

The Ministry of Finance in the draft “Guidelines for the Budget, Tax and Customs Tariff Policy” for 2019-2021, discussed today in the State Duma (*.pdf), proposed a number of significant changes in the procedure for excise taxation of wine products. The main one is the abolition of the reduced excise tax rate on wines and champagnes with a protected geographical indication (PGI) and a protected designation of origin (PDO) from 2019. Since wines with PGI and ZNMP can only be Russian wines made from Russian grapes, the Finance Ministry's proposal means that excises on domestic and imported wines will be equalized.

WTO rules

Now excise taxes on still wines without PGI and ZNMP are 18 rubles. per liter, for sparkling wines without protection - 36 rubles. per liter, and for protected wines and sparkling wines - 5 and 14 rubles. respectively. The Ministry of Finance and the Federal Customs Service in May last year stated that, under Russian law, imported wines cannot be classified as wines with PGI/FNMP, which means that they are subject to the usual excise tax, and not the reduced one. After that, wine importers began to argue that excise preferences for Russian winemakers violate the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In October 2017, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin confirmed that the EU has claims within the WTO to Russian excises on imported wines.

According to WTO rules, it is impossible to create tax preferences for similar local products, so the preferential excise tax on PGI wines did not fit into the organization's norms, says Alexander Stavtsev, head of WineRetail. The goal of equalizing excises is “to create favorable conditions for the development of winemaking in Russia, which at the same time would meet the norms of international law, Russia has assumed international obligations,” the press service of the Ministry of Finance confirmed to RBC.

If the proposal of the Ministry of Finance is accepted, the excise rates for domestic and imported wines will become the same: 18 rubles. for still wines and 36 rubles. for sparkling. In 2020, according to the current legislation, they will increase by 1 rub. - up to 19 and 37 rubles. In the draft Guidelines, the Ministry of Finance says that the rates of all excise taxes already set for 2019-2020 will not change, and for 2021 they will be indexed to the forecast inflation rate (4%). Based on this, excise taxes on still and sparkling wines in 2021 will amount to 20 and 38 rubles. respectively.

From own grapes

The initiative of the Ministry of Finance will equalize in excise duties not only Russian and imported wines, but also domestic wines with and without PGI/ZNMP. However, in order to maintain an incentive for domestic winemakers to create protected wine production, the Ministry of Finance intends to introduce excises on grapes used to produce wine, champagne, cognac distillate, and those producers who use grapes own production, provide a tax deduction "with the application of a multiplying coefficient."

The development of own vineyards is embedded in the development of viticulture and winemaking in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025 - in particular, we are talking about "stimulating the growth in the number of small wineries that produce wine products from their own grapes." It follows from the document of the Ministry of Finance that wine producers who do not grow grapes themselves, but buy it from other Russian enterprises, will not be entitled to a deduction.

So far, very little wine is produced in Russia with PGI and ZNMP, so excise revenues from them are symbolic. In 2017, the consolidated budget collected only 88 million rubles. excises on protected wines and champagnes; at the same time, excises on imported wines, champagne and wine drinks amounted to 6.2 billion rubles. (data from the Federal Treasury).

At the end of 2017, about 4-5 million bottles of PGI wine were produced in Russia, which corresponds to no more than 1.5% of the total wine production, Leonid Popovich, President of the Union of Winegrowers and Winemakers, cites statistics. However, according to him, the production of such wines is constantly growing, so today their share may already be about 2-3%.

Equalization of Russian producers and importers will have a bad effect on Russian market wine, says Popovich. However, a tax deduction for producers who use their own grapes gives hope that the negative effect will be mitigated, he adds. At the same time, it is important that the law provides for a deduction for the use of not “own”, but “produced in Russia” grapes - not all winemakers are ready to grow required amount grapes, but can buy it from other Russian producers, says Popovich.

Russian wine producers with great difficulty in last years tried to achieve minimum preferential conditions, and the proposal of the Ministry of Finance largely negates this work, says Pavel Titov, president of the Abrau Durso wine house. Abrau Durso itself produces part of the wine from its own grapes and part from imported wine material, so the current benefits do not apply to all production, Titov explained. In general, while the initiative of the ministry is not completely clear - for example, almost never a wine producer has exclusively "own grapes", he says. And it will be difficult to pay the excise tax for grapes, even taking into account the deduction, as a result, this will again lead to debt burden on producers, Titov concludes.

The press service of the Ministry of Finance clarified to RBC that the tax deduction will be provided to producers of "full production cycle" wine products using "any grapes" as raw materials (that is, including those purchased from other Russian legal entities). “Concrete proposals with the most optimal tax deduction, multiplying coefficient, etc. will be determined in the future. These issues are still being discussed," the press service added.

The Ministry of Finance also proposed to levy excises on "wine drinks without the addition of ethyl alcohol" in the same amount as on champagne wines. Now such drinks, often disguised as champagne, are subject to excise duty at a rate of 18 rubles. per litre, like regular wine. The Ministry of Finance, therefore, proposes to increase the excise tax on them to 36 rubles. Equalizing excise rates on wine drinks masquerading as champagne with those on champagne is a long-awaited and fair measure, Popovic says, and aims to remove the economic incentives for making such drinks.

Excises on perfume

Another important measure of excise regulation proposed by the Ministry of Finance is the inclusion in the list excisable goods any alcohol-containing perfumery and cosmetic products, regardless of the volume of the container in which it is poured. At the same time, it is proposed to introduce a zero excise rate on such products (now zero excise applies only to perfumes and cosmetics in metal aerosol packaging). In addition, the Ministry of Finance proposes to give such manufacturers the right to a tax deduction in the amount of the excise tax calculated on the purchase of ethyl alcohol, if the manufacturer documents the use of alcohol for the production of perfumery and cosmetic products.

The Ministry of Finance had previously prepared a bill containing similar proposals. The purpose of the initiative is to additionally control the circulation of ethyl alcohol by means of tax regulation and limit the circulation of alcohol-containing products used as surrogate alcohol. Excise tax is not paid to the budget from the sale of perfumes at a zero rate (that is, there is no fiscal logic here), but the manufacturer is required to submit an additional excise tax declaration, which shows how much alcohol-containing products are produced.

Participants in the perfumery and cosmetics industry then criticized the bill of the Ministry of Finance. They warned that bona fide market participants would be subject to the additional burden of increased reporting (although they are already closely monitored by regulators), and that producers of “dual-use” alcohol-containing liquids would not be affected in any way. It is better to deal with surrogates by setting minimum retail prices for alcohol-containing perfumery and cosmetic products at the level of the retail price for vodka, it was said in business reviews on the bill of the Ministry of Finance. As a result, the Ministry of Economic Development, within the framework of the regulatory impact assessment procedure, did not support the bill and asked the Ministry of Finance to finalize it.

The government submitted amendments to the Tax Code to the State Duma, for the first time since 2017, increasing excise taxes on wine and wine drinks. If the parliament approves the initiative, then from 2020 rates will almost double: from 18 to 31 rubles per 1 liter of still wine and from 36 to 40 rubles per 1 liter of sparkling wine. As a result, retail prices for wine will increase by 15-20%, the public organization Opora Rossii warned, while noting that the industry will not be able to withstand the rate of more than 25 rubles per liter.

— We urge to stop the growth of the tax burden, because the industry has just begun to recover. Even if you raise taxes, you need to do it smoothly, over a long period. Imagine that your income tax was 13%, and in six months 26% will be deducted from your salary. How can this be treated? - complains the president of "Opora Rossii" Alexander Kalinin.

Low-income consumers who buy budget wine will suffer the most from the increase in excise taxes, Vadim Drobiz, director of the Center for Research on Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets (CIFRRA), believes.

- We have approximately 50% of wine sold at a price of up to 200 rubles, and 90% of all wine is drunk by women.

Wine, which costs from 130 to 200 rubles, will rise in price by about 20%. Therefore, for women from low social strata, this is a catastrophic growth.

The Ministry of Finance explains this step by "the need to bring excise rates on various alcohols with a comparable alcohol content, equal to the degree of harmfulness of products," Vedomosti wrote earlier. In addition, an increase in excises is needed to comply with WTO rules, which require the equalization of rates for Russian and imported wines (now Russian winemakers enjoy a number of tax preferences compared to importers).

However, experts are convinced that the government's motives are purely fiscal, and concern for the health of citizens and the rules of international trade are used as an excuse to increase revenues to the budget.

— There are no WTO rules, no one observes them. It's sucked from the finger. And there is already a huge surplus in the budget, why even increase it - we do not know.

The only ones who will benefit from the increase are the producers of vodka and other strong drinks, and cheap ones at that, Kalinin says.

Consumers will not be able to switch to cheaper wine, because it is difficult to make wine - powder products do not exist in this segment, says Chief Editor site "Alcohol.Ru" Mikhail Smirnov.

— Consumption of imported wine will grow, which will be comparable in price to domestic wine, which means Russian manufacturers will lose. Plus, the underground production of alcohol, counterfeit and fakes will begin to develop with terrible force. Instead of buying a bottle of wine, a person will buy a bottle of fake vodka.

A simultaneous increase in the excise rate for both wine and wine drinks (at least 50% consisting of wine materials, the rest - various additives) will lead to the creation of a huge market for illegal wine products, Drobiz agrees.

“We already have a lot of illegal vodka today, which is produced in artisanal conditions and sold in unlicensed retail: in kiosks, from hands, and so on. When the prices for natural wine and wine drinks are practically equal, a large volume of illegal wine products at a price of 80-100 rubles will also be added here.

The proposed increase in excise taxes would make wine less affordable to the consumer and thus make it more difficult to switch to lower-alcohol drinks, although that is the goal to be pursued. In Russia, there is no trend to increase the consumption of wine instead of stronger alcohol, says Drobiz.

- AT Soviet time consumption was as follows: wine - 16 liters per capita, wine products - 28 liters. Today we consume 3.5 liters of wine, 7.5 liters of wine products. There is a difference. At the same time, beer consumption was 24 liters per capita, and now it is 50 liters. Strong alcohol - 10 liters, now - 15-16 liters.

That is, in Soviet times we were a wine and vodka country, and now we are a beer and vodka country. There is practically no growth in wine consumption, the main consumer is young girls and women from 22 to 45 years old.

However, you should not worry about Russian winemakers: they will throw all their resources into finding a compromise with the government, which is actually interested in supporting the wine industry. Already, the draft law provides for a tax deduction for excise duty for the use of wine material produced in Russia. In theory, this should allow domestic producers keep the excise rate at the same level.

But in this situation you will not envy the consumer - he will not receive any compensation for the increase in prices and the decrease in product quality. Many fellow citizens will have to rejoice at the achievements of domestic winemaking over a bottle of vodka.

MOSCOW, November 17 - RIA Novosti / Prime. The State Duma, having approved an increase in excise taxes on wine, provokes a 10% increase in prices and thus strikes at 75% of Russian consumers of wine products, said Vadim Drobiz, head of the Center for Research on Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets (CIFRRA).

On Wednesday, State Duma deputies approved in the second reading in 2017-2019 an increase in excise taxes on sparkling wines (champagne) of an unprotected geographical name (made from foreign raw materials) and refused an additional increase in the excise rate on wines from Russian grapes. Thus, the excise rate on sparkling wines (champagne) will increase to 36 from 26 rubles per liter, and the excise tax on sparkling wines to 14 from 13 rubles, as provided for in the Tax Code. Even in the first reading, an increase in the excise tax on still wines from 9 to 18 rubles was approved, while the excise tax on wine made from Russian grapes remained at the level of 5 rubles.

The editors of the first reading set excise rates for sparkling and champagne wines at 27 rubles for 2017-2019, and 14 rubles for protected wines. For other wines, it was proposed to set a rate of 18 rubles, and if they are protected - 10 rubles. However, United Russia deputy Yevgeny Fedorov introduced an amendment to the bill for the second reading, which proposed for 2017-2019 to increase excise taxes on sparkling wines (champagne) to 36 rubles, and if they are protected - up to 19 rubles. This amendment was originally recommended by the budget committee for adoption.

Didn't think

“What did the State Duma do without understanding? It raised prices for all cheap wine products, which now cost up to 150 rubles per bottle and occupy 75% of the market. The cheapest normal wine made from Russian grapes probably costs 120 rubles, after this decision it will cost 150 rubles. If champagne and sparkling today have determined 164 rubles (the minimum retail price for champagne - ed.), after this increase it will already be 185 rubles. This is a lot, although it seems like nonsense for consumers, "says Drobiz.

According to him, when deciding to raise excises, the deputies "didn't think". "They decided that all our wines will now be protected, but today we have practically none of them, and in the future, the market for this wine is unlikely to be more than 10% of the volume, as in any country in the world, where a maximum of 15% of high-quality wine, everything else is an ordinary product. These wines are expensive, and they will not be cheap after this decision, "Drobiz warns.

According to his forecasts, now producers and consumers will start switching to wine drinks. “It is more profitable to produce them, they are cheaper, the population drinks them with pleasure, but this is already an incomprehensible product, GOST allows it to be produced from God knows what, there does not have to be a sufficient amount of wine material. It is legal, safe, you won’t get poisoned by it, but it’s close not wine," the expert believes.

Hello! In this article we will talk about excise taxes on alcohol.

Today you will learn:

1. What is excise tax and what types it is divided into;
2. Who pays excise taxes on alcohol;
3. What is the procedure for calculating and paying excise tax.

The rates for 2019 for a number of items have been brought into line with Law No. 301-FZ dated August 03, 2018. On the alcoholic products it remained at the level of 2018. We will talk about this, as well as the terms and procedures for payment today.

Excise tax on alcohol: the essence of the concept and why it is needed

An excise is a duty that is set by the state for manufacturers alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and a number of other goods. But today we will dwell in more detail only on the tax for alcohol producers.
This tax is called internal, operating within the boundaries of the state.

In addition, excises in Russia are included in the cost of goods, which means that the consumer pays for them. If excisable products are sold at retail, the excise amount is not allocated.

So what are excise taxes for? The answer is simple: for the state to profit from the manufacture of products that are popular with the population. And also, according to experts, the increase in excise taxes is an effective measure in the fight against excessive alcohol consumption.

Negative sides:

• Increase in volumes of illegally imported alcohol;
• The risk of increasing sales of obviously low-quality alcoholic beverages.

What is subject to excise tax

• Realization of alcoholic beverages within the borders of the Russian Federation, carried out by its manufacturer;
• Sale of products that were confiscated by a court verdict;
• The transfer of alcohol by the manufacturer to;
• Export within the borders of the customs territory of the Russian Federation.

Who pays excises

To begin with, let's clarify that those who sell alcohol in bulk are not excise payers.

In other cases, it is paid:

• Enterprises;
• Persons moving such products through customs.

How is it different from VAT?

VAT, like excise duty, is an indirect tax. But there are fundamental differences between them, which we will discuss in more detail.

1. Accrual occurs on a much larger volume of goods. They are also subject to the services provided by the payer. In turn, excises are set only on goods;
2. The next difference is that the excise tax is a real burden on the entrepreneur, and when paying VAT, if you use deductions wisely, the burden can be significantly reduced;
3. It is not always possible to offset the excise tax rate using a deduction;
4. Excises, unlike VAT, have a serious impact on the company's profitability.

Excises in Russia began to operate in 1991. The main elements from which the excise tax is formed are the base, the object and the tax rate.

Types of excise rates

• specific;
• Combined;
• Ad valorem.

Specific

Presented in a fixed amount for 1 unit of goods. Most often used.

ad valorem

It is the same for the whole country and is set as a percentage of the excisable goods. Its weakness is that every time you need to calculate the customs value of products.

Combined

Combines specific and ad valorem rates.

Excise duty rates on alcohol

Excises on alcohol in 2019:

Excise tax on alcohol - brings the state the highest income when compared with other fees. And the tax rates on vodka are much higher than on other alcohol. This is an argument in favor of reducing the production of such a drink.

Ethyl alcohol is the main source of income from the application of excise taxes. The excise tax on alcohol brings the highest income to the state when compared with other fees. And the tax rates on vodka are much higher than on other alcohol. This is an argument in favor of reducing the production of such a drink.

Comparing rates for several years, we see that in 2019 they remained almost at the level of 2018.

How this affected the prices of alcohol in various retail chains, see below.

Alcohol price increase rate

Excises on alcohol are planned to increase only from 2020. on the:

• Products containing ethanol over 9% to 544 rubles, now the excise is 523 rubles.
• Products containing ethyl alcohol less than 9% up to 435 rubles, against 418 rubles, the current rate for 2018.
• Wine - the excise rate will be 19 rubles. per liter, now it is 18 rubles.
• Ethyl alcohol sold by companies that do not pay advance excise payments up to 111 rubles. per litre. Now the excise rate is 107 rubles. per litre.

Calculation and payment of excises

In this part of our conversation, we will give an example of how the excise is calculated, for example, at a fixed rate.

For this, the following calculation formula is used:

A \u003d Nb * Ts, where A is the accrued amount of excise tax, Nb is the tax base (number of goods sold), Tc is a fixed rate.

So Company C has produced and sold 700 liters of beer, which is strong. So, she will have to pay: 700 * 21 = 14,700 rubles.

The combined rate is calculated according to the following formula:

A \u003d Nb * Ts + O + Ac / 100%, where A is the amount of excise tax, Nb is the tax base, Tc is a fixed rate, O is the amount that will be received when selling Nb, Ac is the percentage rate.

Deadlines and procedure

The payment deadline is set to the 25th day of the month following the reporting month. For example: the excise tax for March is paid until April 25. It must be paid where the product was produced and sold from the warehouse.

Goods exempted from payment of excise duty

Not covered by payment:

• Taxable goods for export;
• Manipulations on the transfer of excisable goods in order to manufacture excisable products, but only on the territory of one company;
• Excisable goods confiscated at customs;
• Excisable goods imported through the port area.

The situation with other excisable products

It should be noted that the excise tax was raised not only on alcohol. The list for the increase included cars, cigarettes, cigars, and petroleum products.

Labeling of alcoholic beverages

This product must have excise or special stamps. They certify that the goods are taxed, they also certify that the conditions for the release of products fully comply with the requirements of the law. In addition, the excise stamp is a reporting document.

Consequences of non-payment

Non-payment of excise duty entails the forced collection of payments that were not made and penalties for late payment.

Conclusion

Let's summarize. Excise alcohol is an integral part of the market. The tax on this product performs an important function: it not only increases the filling of the state budget, but also protects the consumer from fakes.