All categories of alcohol are subject to the GST at the general rate of 10%.

In addition to the GST, wine, beer and spirits are subject to different Commonwealth alcohol taxation regimes.

Beer, spirits and ready-to-drink alcohol beverages below 10% alcohol content are subject to excise or customs duty. Australian produced beer, spirits and pre-mixed spirit products are subject to excise duty, collected by the Australian Taxation Office. Imported beer, spirits and pre-mixed spirit products are subject to customs duty collected by the Australian Customs Service. However, imported spirits and pre-mixed spirits (but not beer) are also subject to an additional 5% ad valorem customs duty, or protective tariff.

Excise duties and customs duties (excluding the 5% ad valorem tariff) are set on a volumetric basis — i.e. levied on the actual amount of alcohol in the product. Excise duty and the volumetric component of the customs duty are set at the same level for each alcohol category, and are automatically increased twice a year (1st February and 1st August) to take account of movements in the consumer price index (CPI) in the previous six months.

All wine (including cask and bottled wine, other grape wine products such as marsala and vermouth, mead and sake, and traditional cider) is subject to the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET). WET applies at the rate of 29% of the last wholesale selling price (usually the last sale from the wholesaler to the retailer). The taxation of wine differs to the tax situation in relation to beer, spirits and ready-to-drink products in two significant ways. Firstly, the WET is levied on an ad valorem basis (i.e. a tax on value) rather than the alcohol content of the product. Secondly, there is no automatic six-monthly indexation of the WET as there is for spirits and beer.

The latest and previous duty rates (both excise and customs) applying to distilled spirit products, and the duty payable on certain commodities, are set out in the accompanying table.

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