AS Scots lay into their bottle of whisky for the New Year, new research suggests that they overwhelmingly resent that 76 per cent of the purchase price is tax.
A poll conducted on behalf of the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), shows that 92 per cent said that they believed the current tax paid on an average priced bottle of whisky in the UK, £9.91, was unfair.
More than three-quarters of the price of a bottle of Scotch is tax paid to the Exchequer in excise duty and VAT.
As well as being unfair to consumers, the industry believes that the level of tax is damaging to the economy. The SWA says that if less tax was levied, more jobs could be safeguarded and smaller businesses could flourish.
David Frost, SWA chief executive, said the "bold move" by George Osborne in his last Budget to cut excise duty by two per cent had given a boost to distilleries and across the supply chain.
"But that was the first cut in spirits duty in almost 20 years and was only the fifth time that tax on whisky has ever been cut since distilling became legal in 1832. So there’s more to be done and we want the UK Government to build on that first step they’ve taken," he said.
There are 117 distilleries, employing more than 10,000 people in Scotland, supporting 40,000 jobs across the UK and generating £5 billion in value each year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel