Alcohol concentration by freezing - legality (UK) and or duty?
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BristolCider
Jul 24, 2011, 6:58:43 AM7/24/11
to Cider Workshop
Are any laws being broken in the UK by concentrating cider (or beer or
wine) by removing ice crystals?
There are two situations I can imagine - non-commercial cidermaker who
is not HMRC registered and a commercial HMRC registered cidermaker.
I can understand that the HMRC registered cidermaker would need to pay
duty on the freeze-concentrated product because it would exceed 8.5%
but is it within the law for him to do this? Would he need additional
licencing?
For the non-HMRC registered cidermaker the situation seems less clear.
I have no intention of doing this myself but am interested in the UK
legal situation.
Roger
wine) by removing ice crystals?
There are two situations I can imagine - non-commercial cidermaker who
is not HMRC registered and a commercial HMRC registered cidermaker.
I can understand that the HMRC registered cidermaker would need to pay
duty on the freeze-concentrated product because it would exceed 8.5%
but is it within the law for him to do this? Would he need additional
licencing?
For the non-HMRC registered cidermaker the situation seems less clear.
I have no intention of doing this myself but am interested in the UK
legal situation.
Roger
Nick Bradstock
Jul 24, 2011, 6:00:05 PM7/24/11
to cider-w...@googlegroups.com
In haste!
There is no directly applicable law on this that I am immediately aware of -
but research of spirits legislation might turn something up along the lines
of 'practices that give the same result as distillation'. There would of
course be technical infringements of existing legislation - potentially with
the dire results outlined below.
Certainly the so-called 'cleaning up' of alcohol by eg: ultra-filtration is
very much under the microscope in the World Customs Organisation at the
moment as the result of cases put forward for classification as 'spirits' by
the EU Commission.
I would say that, in the UK, both registered and registered-exempt cider
makers would be at risk since HMRC (if aware) would argue that
freeze-concentration is not a 'permitted cider making practice' and the
result is then made wine - for which no duty exemption exists and to which a
duty rate currently of £2.4123 per litre applies (if above 5.5%ABV). The
cider maker would also be at risk if he is not a licensed wine maker.
Comments?
Best
Nick
There is no directly applicable law on this that I am immediately aware of -
but research of spirits legislation might turn something up along the lines
of 'practices that give the same result as distillation'. There would of
course be technical infringements of existing legislation - potentially with
the dire results outlined below.
Certainly the so-called 'cleaning up' of alcohol by eg: ultra-filtration is
very much under the microscope in the World Customs Organisation at the
moment as the result of cases put forward for classification as 'spirits' by
the EU Commission.
I would say that, in the UK, both registered and registered-exempt cider
makers would be at risk since HMRC (if aware) would argue that
freeze-concentration is not a 'permitted cider making practice' and the
result is then made wine - for which no duty exemption exists and to which a
duty rate currently of £2.4123 per litre applies (if above 5.5%ABV). The
cider maker would also be at risk if he is not a licensed wine maker.
Comments?
Best
Nick
Roger
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