German breweries, who bottle their beer into ordinary standard returnable bottles, warn of a danger for the deposit system. According to the Brauerbund, a planned tax revaluation of empties could lead to more breweries switching to returnable bottles with individual engraving. Then empty returnable bottles would have to be sorted more accurately and always returned to the production brewery.
With the tax revaluation, the Federal Ministry of Finance wants to implement a judgment of the Federal Finance Court from the year 2013. Although this was about returnable bottles of mineral water, the verdict should also be applied to beer returnable bottles, according to a letter from the Ministry to the tax authorities in the SPIEGEL. First the "FAZ" and the "Lebensmittelzeitung" had reported.
Breweries are obliged to take their boxes with returnable bottles from the dealers. For the payment of the deposit, they form provisions in their balance sheets. But the transfer of the mineral water judgment from 2013 to the beer industry could mean that many breweries are no longer allowed to make provisions. "That would be a fatal steering effect, which would further increase the individualization and complexity of the value-added system," said Holger Eichele, CEO of the German Brewing Association.
Verband warns of costs in the double-digit million range
In the future, the creation of reserves could only be possible for returnable bottles that can be clearly assigned to a brewery, the breweries fear - ie bottles in whose glass the brewery engraves its brand name. So far, most German breweries rely on ordinary standard returnable bottles, which can be used by any brewery. On the other hand, empty bottles with engraving must be returned to the manufacturer. This can lead to longer transport routes.
The transfer of the judgment to beer returnable bottles could result in breweries having to liquidate their provisions for ordinary standard returnable bottles. The brewery federation fears that in the long run more breweries will introduce bottles with engraving, for whose pledge reserves are to be allowed further. Then every returned box would probably have to be checked even more accurately for bottles with or without engraving.
In addition, the reversal of provisions would increase the accounting profit of companies on a one-off basis, and consequently the tax burden on companies. The Brauerbund expects German breweries to incur costs in the double-digit millions. This would have serious consequences for some companies: "We know breweries, they would not survive," said Eichele.
