Official Statistics

Soft Drinks Industry Levy statistics background and references

Updated 27 September 2024

Background

The government announced at Budget 2016 that it would introduce a new Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL). Following public consultation with industry and stakeholders, SDIL was introduced in April 2018. The levy targets producers and importers of sugary soft drinks to encourage them to remove added sugar, promote diet drinks, and reduce portion sizes for high sugar drinks. Businesses must register for SDIL if they:

• own the brand of a liable drink, or produce liable drinks under another brand, and they’re not a small producer

• bottle, can or otherwise package liable drinks for someone else

If businesses produce less than one million litres of liable drinks, they’re classed as a ‘small producer’ and do not need to register for the levy if all the following apply:

• they, and anyone connected to them, produced less than one million litres (worldwide) of liable drinks over the past 12 rolling months

• they, and anyone connected to them, will not produce over one million litres of liable drinks in the next 30 days

Produced, packaged or imported drinks become liable for SDIL if they meet all of the following conditions:

• it has had sugar added during production, or anything (other than fruit juice, vegetable juice and milk) that contains sugar, such as honey

• it contains at least 5 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres in its ready to drink or diluted form

• it’s either ready to drink, or to be drunk it must be diluted with water, mixed with crushed ice or processed to take crushed ice, mixed with carbon dioxide, or a combination of these

• it’s bottled, canned or otherwise packaged so it’s ready to drink or be diluted

• it has a content of 1.2% alcohol by volume (ABV) or less

When the levy is due

For liable drinks packaged in the UK, you need to report the drinks in the same reporting period that they leave the premises they were packaged in, unless they’re moved to a registered warehouse. In this case, the levy becomes due when the drinks leave the registered warehouse. Further guidance is available on how to register a warehouse for the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.

If the liable drinks are made available for sale (or free of charge) at any time, the levy becomes due at that point.

Importers of soft drinks into the UK may also be liable for SDIL. Further information on bringing drinks liable for the Soft Drinks Industry Levy into the UK can be found at GOV.UK.

Businesses liable for SDIL are required to send a return to HMRC every quarter. Returns are for fixed reporting periods ending June, September, December and March. Payment of levy is due within 30 days of the end of the reporting period. Therefore, there is a one month lag between accounting periods ending and receipt of payment by HMRC.

Soft Drinks Industry Levy rates

There are currently 2 SDIL rates:

• standard rate of 18p per litre on drinks that have a total sugar content of more than 5g and less than 8g per 100ml

• higher rate of 24p per litre on drinks that have a total sugar content of 8g or more per 100ml

Publication methodology

Data sources

These statistics cover the UK. It is not possible to provide any regional breakdown on where tax liability arose for SDIL as HMRC does not collect this data on the tax return. Statistics from HMRC that estimate receipts for different duties at a country level are available in the Disaggregation of HMRC tax and NIC receipts publication.

SDIL receipts data used within this publication, is derived from HMRC’s Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) accounting system. Data within this system is based upon information submitted by taxpayers. SDIL liabilities data, as presented within this publication, is derived from information provided to HMRC through trader returns. This information is held securely within data warehouses, where it is accessed by HMRC for operational, managerial and analytical purposes.

Statistical quality

HMRC’s statement on statistical quality is published within ‘Statistics at HMRC’.

These statistics are based on administrative data sources, which undergo a thorough internal quality-assurance procedure prior to publication.

Revisions

Amendments and late returns can influence the data used for the publications. For that reason, all data added to the publication since the previous release is labelled as provisional, although revisions tend to be minor. Revisions are only marked when non-provisional figures are changed.

Total cash receipts are aligned with the National Audit Office (NAO) audited HMRC annual report and accounts. This can result in adjustments to March statistics to ensure consistency between reported financial year totals. As such, March figures are treated as provisional until aligned with the annual report and accounts..

Rounding

Cash receipts and liabilities statistics are rounded to the nearest 0.1 million pounds. Volumes statistics are rounded to the nearest 0.1 million litres.

Totals may be different from the total of their parts due to rounding, or wastage statistics not being included in the published tables but included in the overall totals.

Any differences between statistics within the Soft Drinks Industry Levy Bulletin commentary document and data tables is because calculations used within the commentary document are based upon unrounded statistics.

Statistics may also show as zero within data tables where there are small negative values because of rounding.

Contacts

The Soft Drinks Industry Levy Bulletin is produced by the Indirect Tax Receipts Monitoring team as part of the Excise duties, VAT and other tax statistics collection.

For statistical enquiries, contact:

[email protected]
For media enquiries see HMRC press office.

For taxpayers with excise enquiries see the Excise Helpline.

Publication calendar

The Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) Statistics publication is released annually during the Autumn. It’s released on the last working day of the month, unless the last working day falls on a Monday, when it is brought forward.

The next release, for 2023, will be published in Autumn 2023. The exact date will be confirmed no later than 4 weeks before release as per the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Archive versions of Soft Drinks Industry Levy Statistics published on GOV.UK prior to the latest edition are no longer hosted on this page and are instead available via the UK Government Web Archive, from the National Archives.

Go to Research and statistics for future Soft Drinks Industry Levy Statistics release date announcements. Announcements are published no later than 4 weeks before the release date.

User engagement

HMRC welcomes user engagement to improve the departments National and Official Statistics. You can contact statistics producers on GOV.UK.

We consulted users about indirect tax receipts statistics from 20 November 2015 to 11 February 2016.

A consultation on the reduction and consolidation of HMRC statistics publications was held between 8 February 2021 and 12 March 2021 and the results have been published. No changes to SDIL statistics were announced.

Official Statistics

These statistics are produced in line with the United Kingdom Statistics Authority (UKSA) Code of Practice for Statistics as set out within the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

As such, they undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs, and are produced free from any political interference.

Contact UKSA for queries about National and Official Statistics.

Related statistics

The HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK National Statistics provide the first provisional snapshot of cash receipts statistics each month.

The HMRC ‘Measuring tax gaps’ Official Statistics estimate the tax gap for all taxes and duties administered by the department. Tax gaps are the difference between tax collected and that, which in HMRC’s view, should be collected.

HMRC publish the Tax ready reckoner Official Statistics which show the estimated direct impact on HMRC tax revenues if simple changes were made to various taxes. They are intended to assist researchers and policymakers.

The Public sector finances National Statistics bulletin from ONS and HM Treasury (HMT) provides the latest available estimates for key public sector finance statistics each month.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast duty receipts within their economic and fiscal outlook publications.