iancraig
Active Member
Hello,
I guess this is directly relevant to almost nobody here, but maybe one or two find it interesting. At least it will probably confirm well-held stereotypes about Germans, and give most of you one more reason to be thankful that you live in the UK
.
Here in Germany, you have to tell the authorities that you plan to brew at home. More specifically, according to the letter of the law, you have to pre-register every brewday (every batch) with the local customs office before you do it.
Depending on where you live, the customs officers seem to take this more or less seriously. But on the german homebrew forums there are plenty of stories of officials turning up on (the pre-registered) brewday to check that the brew length and strength (%ABV) are as reported. Many of them try to buy a few bottles after completing their routine.
The reason is tax. As a homebrewer living in Germany, I am allowed to brew 200l tax-free per calendar year. After that I have to pay 0.004407⬠per litre and degree Plato.
According to the thread "How many gallows of homebrew 2012" you guys brewed 7319.5 gallons in 2012. That is 33275 litres. Assuming an average OG of 1.050 (~12 Plato), that's a tax bill of 1760⬠= £1500. This ignores the tax-free allowances and the fact that this is split over hundreds of homebrewers, making you really wonder what the value of all this bureaucracy is ..
Sigh.
All the best,
Ian
I guess this is directly relevant to almost nobody here, but maybe one or two find it interesting. At least it will probably confirm well-held stereotypes about Germans, and give most of you one more reason to be thankful that you live in the UK
.Here in Germany, you have to tell the authorities that you plan to brew at home. More specifically, according to the letter of the law, you have to pre-register every brewday (every batch) with the local customs office before you do it.
Depending on where you live, the customs officers seem to take this more or less seriously. But on the german homebrew forums there are plenty of stories of officials turning up on (the pre-registered) brewday to check that the brew length and strength (%ABV) are as reported. Many of them try to buy a few bottles after completing their routine.
The reason is tax. As a homebrewer living in Germany, I am allowed to brew 200l tax-free per calendar year. After that I have to pay 0.004407⬠per litre and degree Plato.
According to the thread "How many gallows of homebrew 2012" you guys brewed 7319.5 gallons in 2012. That is 33275 litres. Assuming an average OG of 1.050 (~12 Plato), that's a tax bill of 1760⬠= £1500. This ignores the tax-free allowances and the fact that this is split over hundreds of homebrewers, making you really wonder what the value of all this bureaucracy is ..
Sigh.
All the best,
Ian
.
