Coffee, sticky bun culture, taxes and excise taxes
A while ago, a video by Thierry Baudet went viral when he criticized the country's clay bun culture. In addition, he said that it is "one of the enigmas of our time that Dutch coffee is so incredibly less tasty than in Italy." The Dutch coffee maker was therefore not to be trusted, according to the politician. In an exaggerated way, the tirade amounted to the following: beware of mainstream coffee!
Yet there are many people who think otherwise. A survey by the website Quartz that, on average, the Dutch drink the most cups of coffee in a day. Even our eastern neighbors, who just missed the podium with their fifth place, can appreciate a "bakkie pleur.
The German version of Douwe Egberts must be delighted with this news, but the German treasury and Dutch border entrepreneurs are also happy with German coffee consumption. Why this is so, I will explain in this article.
Kaffeesteuer (coffee tax).
Beginning in the seventeenth century, Europe turned to coffee, and by 1781 the coffee trade was flourishing in Prussia. Frederick the Great decided to introduce a tax on the import of coffee (Einfuhrzolles). In the nineteenth century, this tax was an important source of Prussia's income, and after German unification in 1871 the revenues accrued to the German Empire.
Currently, the Kaffeesteuergesetz codifies the German coffee tax. The tax no longer takes the form of import duties, as this is incompatible with the European internal market. The tax is now shaped as Verbrauchsteuer, which means that the "consumption" of the coffee is taxed. In the Netherlands, such a tax is referred to as an "excise tax. A number of consumption taxes or excise duties are harmonized by the EU (such as the consumption of tobacco), but this does not apply to coffee. This means that member states may decide for themselves how to tax this product.
Germany has chosen to impose an excise tax of €2.19 on a kilogram of pure coffee beans and €4.78 for instant coffee. Every year, German taxpayers transfer more than €1 billion to the German Finance Ministry by buying coffee.
Coffee tourism due to low VAT rate on coffee in the Netherlands
Because the Netherlands levies VAT only on food products, German taxpayers are usually better off buying their coffee in the Netherlands. In fact, having a cup across the border is a lot cheaper because there are no excise taxes on coffee in the Netherlands. Because the low VAT rate in the Netherlands is higher than in Germany, it saves on average about €1.50 per kilo for pure coffee beans and even more for instant coffee. It is also not advisable to bring a typical Dutch sticky bun, because you pay more tax on that than in Germany.
But at least the coffee tax leads to gas stations on the border with Germany selling huge amounts of coffee to Germans. There was even a Dutch gas station owner who could no longer make ends meet selling fuel after the increase in excise taxes on diesel and LPG, but was able to keep his head above water by selling coffee. However, a maximum of ten kilograms is allowed in the trunk back to Germany.
If you take more, you are drinking your coffee black in the tax sense.