Duty: Where Mistakes Cost Real Money

Beer duty is where the paperwork becomes genuinely frightening. You must submit a monthly Alcohol Duty return to HMRC by the 15th of the month after each accounting period, and pay the duty by the 25th. Miss the payment date and you're hit with a penalty of 5% of the duty or £250, whichever is greater, plus daily penalties for continued non-payment. HMRC charge interest on top.

The calculations themselves are complex. Duty rates depend on ABV, container size, and whether you qualify for Small Producer Relief or Draught Relief. The system changed significantly in August 2023 and continues to evolve. Reduced rates apply for qualifying draught products — those under 8.5% ABV in containers of at least 20 litres designed for pressurised delivery systems. Getting the wrong rate, miscalculating your production volumes, or failing to properly record when beer leaves duty suspense can all result in underpayments that HMRC will come looking for.

You will almost certainly need to pay for brewery management software to handle this. Systems like Breww calculate your duty automatically, track when beer leaves the brewery, maintain audit logs, and generate the figures you need for your HMRC returns. This isn't optional complexity — it's the cost of not making an expensive mistake. The software subscription is a recurring cost, but the alternative is doing it manually, getting something wrong, and paying far more in penalties and back-duty. Any mistakes, you will pay for. HMRC don't care that you're a small business learning the ropes.