Tuesday 25 November 2008

The budget

How many of you wonder just what effect the budget will have on beer in you favourite pub?Well for a start, because most pubs are struggling, it was unlikely that any VAT reduction was going to end up being taken off the price of your pint. The best thing you could hope for was your pub not going bankrupt.

I've done the sums for you. Oh alright, MicroShit Excel has. Unfortunately, my worst fears are realised, it makes very little difference to the amount I'm going to end up paying to HMRC.

There are however two pieces of good news. Firstly, it will hit small brewers less than big ones because we get a 50% discount on beer duty but not VAT. I save £0.03 per pint!!! Secondly, it will put more costs proportionally on the big brewers, supermarkets and low end pubs like Wetherspoons.

I've assumed £2.50 a pint at 4% ABV. If the beer is good and the pub is good I think this is a very reasonable price per pint.
Please note, your pint would only cost about £1.80 without VAT and duty - remember that next time you whinge about the price of a pint.
Also remember that most publicans pay HMRC much more than they earn for themselves.
If anybody really wants to know the duty rate, it's here

1 comment:

Alistair Reece said...

Now take off the cost of making said pint, maintanence costs of said pint while in keg, staffing costs for pouring said pint, staffing costs for washing glass of said pint and you are very likely down to pennies in actual profit.