Indirect taxation of wine: an international comparison

Abstract

The highly competitive international wine market imposes serious pressure on the viability of small wine producers as well as emerging wine nations. In this light this paper will examine the indirect taxes levied on wine manufactured in new world wine nations, Australia and New Zealand, and an old world wine nation, France. These indirect taxes include value added taxes, excises and customs duties. This paper will focus on wine produced for domestic consumption and export, as well as imported wine. The aim of comparing these indirect taxes is to help inform the debate about the indirect taxation of wine. This is highly relevant given the current review of Australia’s taxation system.