James Clay and Sons supports VAT reduction campaign
Germany charges 7% on hospitality, Belgium 12%, and the UK trade is asking for 10%. The rate is not the interesting part.
Our take
European hospitality is not one market and never has been. A pub in Cologne and a pub in Leeds are running on different arithmetic before either of them has poured anything, and the difference is set by a tax rate rather than by anything either landlord does.
The argument being made here is that margin buys nerve. A publican with room to breathe will take a chance on a beer nobody has heard of, and that chance is the entire distribution strategy of most small breweries. A tax on pubs is therefore a tax on new beer getting tried at all.
Whether 10% is the right number is a political question we have no business answering. That the number decides how adventurous a tap list gets is not really in dispute.
The reporting is The Brewers Journal’s. The opinion above is ours, and we have not reproduced their article. Read it where it was published →