Drinkers of distilled spirits and pre-mixed drinks will pay one dollar in alcohol tax on every standard drink they buy when Australia’s alcohol tax rates are adjusted for inflation this week.
The Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia (DSICA) has pointed out that the increased tax takes effect from 1 August as part of the regular six-monthly CPI excise rate increase.
“The gap between spirits, beer and wine taxes will keep growing because the twice-yearly CPI percentage increase always has a bigger financial impact on the higher taxed spirits, and the tax rate on wine holds still,” says DSICA spokesperson Stephen Riden.
Beer drinkers will also pay more tax but at less than half the amount that distilled spirit drinkers will pay, says DSICA, while wine taxes will not increase as they are taxed by value, not its alcohol content.
Riden said drinkers of pre-mixed spirits and flavoured ciders can work out how much they are paying to the government by “looking at the standard drinks logo on the bottle and putting a dollar sign in front of it,” he said.
Riden also said the new tax rate means that the government will take $22 in alcohol tax from each standard sized bottle of spirits.
