Businesses that must register include those that:
- own the brand of a liable drink, or produce liable drinks under another brand, and are not a small producer
- bottle, can or otherwise package liable drinks for someone else
If the business has produced liable drinks in the past, but isn’t producing any liable drinks after 6 April 2018, you don’t have to register for the levy as a producer.
You may need to register, report and pay the levy if you’re involved in bringing liable drinks into the UK from anywhere else, including the Isle of Man and Channel Islands.
If any of the liable drinks are packaged by someone outside the UK, and being liable drinks are being brought back into the UK, you may need to register, report and pay the levy.
However if your business produces less than one million litres of liable drinks it is defined as a small producer and it you won’t need to register for the levy.
This also applies if the business and anyone connected to it won’t produce over one million litres of liable drinks in the next 30 days.
You can choose to register for the levy if your business uses a contract packager. The business will get a registration number which can be given to the contract packager so that they won’t have to pay the levy on the drinks.
Producers must register if, at the end of any month, the amount of liable drinks produced over the past 12 rolling months (including before 6 April 2018) is more than one million litres.
If, over the past 12 rolling months, more than one million litres of liable drinks have been produced but currently fewer liable drinks are being produced, there might still be a need to register. When production goes below one million litres over the past 12 rolling months, registration can be cancelled.
More information can be found on the .Gov website.
