Official Statistics

Soft Drinks Industry Levy statistics commentary 2023

Updated 29 September 2023

Released: 29 September 2023. Next Release: Autumn 2024.

Headline statistics

The latest headlines for Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) statistics are:

• provisional SDIL receipts were £355 million for the financial year 2022 to 2023, compared to £334 million in the previous financial year (2021 to 2022) and £299 million in 2020 to 2021

• provisional year-to-date receipts for the current financial year (April to August 2023) are £172 million

About this release

This annual Official Statistics publication provides Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) liabilities and volume declared at each rate, alongside receipts within the accompanying statistics tables.

SDIL traders declare liabilities on fixed quarterly reporting periods ending June, September, December and March, with payment due within 30 days following the period end date. Therefore, there is a one month lag between declared liabilities and receipts being received by HMRC.

Due to this and the timing of this publication we do not have complete liabilities and volumes data for September 2023 in this publication. Therefore the latest liabilities and volumes data is from the period ending August 2023 and this is provisional data.

SDIL was announced at Budget 2016, and introduced in April 2018 as a new levy applied to the packaging and importation into the UK of soft drinks containing added sugar.

Soft Drinks Industry Levy net liabilities

SDIL rates

There are 2 rates of SDIL:

• standard rate (18p per litre) applied to drinks with sugar content between 5 grams (g) and up to (but not including) 8g per 100ml

• higher rate (24p per litre) applied to drinks with sugar content equal to or greater than 8g per 100ml

In April 2023, SDIL was extended to include packaged concentrates which are mixed with sugar and diluted by a fountain machine to dispense a drink containing a total sugar content of 5 grams or more per 100 millilitres. These are charged at the higher rate (24p per litre).

Figure 1: Net liabilities declared at the end of each financial quarter for standard and higher rate SDIL over the previous 5 years.

The graph is plotted in quarters with Q1 referring to the first quarter of the financial year. Hence 2022 to 2023 Q1 refers to the months from April 2022 to June 2022.

For the full dataset that accompanies Chart 1 go to Soft Drinks Industry Level statistics tables 2023.

Chart 1 demonstrates several trends for SDIL liabilities declared:

• higher rate liabilities comprised, on average, around 96% of total net liabilities in each quarter since the 2019 to 2020 financial year.

• net liabilities are usually highest in the second quarter of the financial year, and then decrease to below £80 million in the fourth quarter

• net liabilities in the first two quarters of the 2022 to 2023 financial year are the highest since the tax was introduced

• net liabilities were lowest in the first quarter of the 2020 to 2021 financial year, likely due to economic impacts related to the coronavirus pandemic

• net liabilities were highest in the 2022 to 2023 financial year compared to all previous financial years

• net liabilities in the first quarter of the 2023 to 2024 financial year are similar to those from the same period in previous financial years, except from 2022 to 2023, which had the highest receipts for a quarter.

Soft Drinks Industry Levy gross liabilities and credits

Liabilities must be declared on each Soft Drinks Industry Levy return for volumes by rate and whether they are packaged themselves or imported into the UK:

• gross liabilities refer to liabilities declared before any credit is claimed

• net liabilities refer to liabilities after any credit has been claimed (gross liabilities minus credit declared)

• credit can be claimed on SDIL returns for drinks that are exported, lost or destroyed

Figure 2: Gross liabilities declared as imported and packaged for the standard and higher rates over the previous 5 years.

The graph is plotted in quarters with Q1 referring to the first quarter of the financial year. Hence 2022 to 2023 Q1 refers to the months from April 2022 to June 2022.

For the full dataset that accompanies Chart 2 go to Soft Drinks Industry Level statistics tables 2023.

Chart 2 demonstrates several trends for SDIL liabilities declared:

• packaged liabilities make up around 87% of gross liabilities in each quarter

• gross liabilities are highest in the second quarter of the financial year, between £90 million and £110 million, and then decrease to below £90 million in the fourth quarter

• gross liabilities in the first two quarters of the 2022 to 2023 financial year are the highest since the tax was introduced

• low liabilities in the first quarter of the 2020 to 2021 financial year, between April and June 2020, can be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic and UK-wide lockdown in response

• gross liabilities were highest in the 2022 to 2023 financial year compared to all previous financial years

Figure 3: Credit declared from exported drinks for the standard and higher rates 5 years.

The graph is plotted in quarters with Q1 referring to the first quarter of the financial year. Hence 2022 to 2023 Q1 refers to the months from April 2022 to June 2022.

For the full dataset that accompanies Chart 3 go to Soft Drinks Industry Level statistics tables 2023.

Chart 3 demonstrates several trends for SDIL credit declared:

• the higher rate makes up around 87% of exported credit declared in each quarter

• credit declared on exported drinks is highest in the first quarter of the 2019 to 2020 financial year, between April and June 2019, at around £15 million and is lowest in the first quarter of the 2020 to 2021 financial year, between April and June 2020, at around £10 million

• the value of credit declared on wastage is now included in the accompanying data tables as of the September 2022 publication, however the breakdown of wastage by rate type is not included

• credit declared on exported drinks in the first quarter of 2023 to 2024 is the lowest it has been since the first quarter of the 2020 to 2021 financial year, at around £10 million

Contacts

For statistical enquiries, contact:

revenuemonitoring@hmrc.gov.uk

For media enquiries, see HMRC press office.