Excise duty on alcohol must be paid on beer, wine and other fermented beverages, intermediate products and ethyl alcohol manufactured in, imported into, or received in Sweden – either from another EU country or from a country outside the EU.
Here you or your appointed agent can file an excise duty return.
Beer, wine and other fermented beverages, intermediate products and ethyl alcohol are subject to harmonised rules that are common to countries within the EU. This means that all EU countries follow the same procedural rules on the payment of excise duty. However, each individual EU member state decides on its own excise duty rates.
Goods in movement within the EU are known as:
“Import” refers to the introduction of goods into Sweden from a third country, provided that the goods are not covered by a suspensive customs procedure – such as customs transit – or a suspensive customs arrangement (import goods are released from such a procedure or arrangement).
“Export” means that goods are sent from Sweden (or another EU country) to a third country or via another EU country
The terms EU and EU countries refer to all territories included in the EU’s excise duty area. A “third country” is a country or region outside the EU’s excise duty area.
Find out more about the EU’s excise duty area in the Swedish Tax Agency’s manual on excise duty (“Handledning för punktskatter”, SKV 504 ).
You can apply for excise duty exemption if you use alcohol for certain professional purposes in your business: in the production of ethanol-based hand sanitisers, for example. Once your application is approved, you can receive excise-duty-free alcohol from a Swedish authorised warehouse keeper. Universities, other higher education institutions, chemists and hospitals generally have the right to buy excise-duty-free alcohol from an authorised warehouse keeper, as long as the alcohol is intended for scientific and medical use.
Excise-duty-exempt users (in Swedish):
Alcohol excise duty must be paid on alcohol goods imported into Sweden – even if duty has already been paid on the goods in another country. Alcohol excise duty also has to be paid on alcohol products manufactured in Sweden – regardless of whether or not they have been produced legally.
In certain circumstances, you can postpone the payment of excise duty on alcohol when manufacturing, processing, storing alcohol goods within the EU, or when moving them between different EU countries. Find out more about what to do under “Goods handling when duty is suspended”, which is listed in the menu.
The Swedish Alcohol Act (2010:1622) includes regulations that limit the production, marketing, trade, import and export of alcohol goods. If you wish to find out what is permitted according to the Swedish Alcohol Act, please contact the Public Health Agency of Sweden (Folkhälsomyndigheten).
In order to produce hand sanitisers without paying alcohol excise duty on imported ethyl alcohol, you have to be one of the following:
The Swedish Chemicals Agency (Kemikalieinspektionen) is responsible for the rules on disinfectants.
The Swedish Alcohol Act (2010:1622) includes regulations on the trade of substances containing alcohol. Hand sanitiser is such a substance. There are also rules stating that substances containing alcohol have to be denatured in accordance with the Public Health Agency of Sweden’s requirements.
Only authorised warehouse keepers can deliver ethyl alcohol without paying alcohol excise duty on it, in order for someone else to make ethanol-based hand sanitiser from it. The consignee then has to be one of the following:
The Swedish Alcohol Act includes regulations on the trade of industrial alcohol. There are also rules stating that ethyl alcohol intended for selling to someone for hand sanitiser production, must be denatured in accordance with the Public Health Agency of Sweden’s requirements.