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Excise duty on soft drinks – what products are dutiable and how much are the duties?

From 1 April 2026, new duty rules to concern soft drinks
Frequently asked questions about the new duty rules on soft drinks

Excise duty on soft drinks is a national excise duty that must be paid on soft drinks produced in Finland or imported from abroad. In addition, excise duty on soft drinks is payable on various concentrates and solid ingredients used in the production of beverages. 

The company that pays the duty will almost always also be liable to pay the excise duty on beverage containers.

Who is liable for paying the duty? 

In general, the payers of the duty on soft drinks are companies that produce or import soft drinks, including retail grocery stores, supermarkets, breweries, restaurants and cafés.

The duty must be paid even in cases where the company would only bring a single small delivery of dutiable products to Finland. 

Example 1:  A restaurant orders a shipment of cola drinks from Germany to sell them in the restaurant. The restaurant has to pay excise duty on soft drinks and excise duty on beverage containers on the soft drinks imported.

Example 2: A company that owns a restaurant contacts a Finnish wholesale corporation, to make an order for a cola drink delivery to sell cola drinks in the  restaurant. There is no need for the company to pay the duty on soft drinks.  This is because either the producer of the drinks, or the wholesale corporation, must pay the duty.

Independent small producers are exempted from paying the excise duty on soft drinks. However, if you are a company having the status of an independent small producer, you are required to apply for registration, and subsequently, verify the currently registered data and inform the Tax Administration of any changes once a year. To do this, you will need to submit the “Notice on change of register information” form.

Starting on 1 April 2026, small producers of solid beverage ingredients are also entitled to de minimis aid.

Are you an independent small producer? Read more — independent small producers

What are the products subject to the duty?    

Excise duty on soft drinks is payable on both soft drinks produced in Finland and those imported from abroad. 

Excise duty on soft drinks is payable not only on soft drinks but also on various concentrates and solid ingredients used in the production of beverages. 

In addition, excise duty on soft drinks must be paid on juices, smoothies and cold coffee and tea drinks prepared in a shop or at a cafe, for example, unless the producer is a small producer of beverages. 

Products subject to the excise duty 

Dutiable products include: 

  • waters, juices and smoothies
  • soft drinks, sodas, energy drinks
  • beers, max. 0.5% of alcohol by volume 
  • drinks containing max. 1.2% of alc. by volume (such as ciders and wines that are non-alcoholic) 
  • concentrates, powders, dragées and herb leaves for making drinks
  • certain special diet products
  • sports drinks 
  • plant-based milk replacement products with flavourings
  • plant-based drinks containing sugar more than 4.8 g / 100 ml (e.g. soy drinks and oat drinks)  
  • plant-based milk alternative beverages with a calcium content of less than 199 mg per 100 ml 
  • unpackaged beverages prepared and sold to the customer at the same place (“beverages sold in bulk”). 

Excise duty table contains a list of the soft-drink product groups that are dutiable. (Available in Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish.)

Exempted products 

No excise duty on soft drinks is collected on products such as: 

  • products utilised for industrial production processes of soft drinks 
  • products or raw materials used in the industrial production of other products in the food industry 
  • unflavoured milk replacement products containing less than 4.8 g sugar per 100 millilitres and with a calcium content of at least 119 mg per 100 ml
  • clinical nutritional preparations  
  • baby formula milk and the like  
  • infant and baby food 
  • slimming preparations  
  • dietary supplements
  • preparations based on commodity codes 0901 and 0902 (coffee and tea), codes 1805 and 1806 (cocoa powder) and code 2101 (extracts, essences and concentrates of coffee and tea), and hot beverages prepared of them. 

What is this excise duty’s base? 

Excise duty payable on soft drinks is based on the number of litres produced.  

The amount of excise duty is affected by the commodity code and sugar content. See the product groups and amounts of excise duty in the table of excise duty on soft drinks.  (Available in Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish.)

Unpackaged beverages prepared at the same place where they are sold are taxed at the lowest excise duty level. Their sugar content does not need to be determined. 

How do I file and pay the duty? 

The filing and payment schedule – including mode of payment – depends on whether your company is liable to pay excise duty regularly or casually, and whether you bought the products in the EU territory or outside of it. 

Imported dutiable products are subject to the excise duty on soft drinks whether bought in the EU territory or outside of it.

  • If your company brings soft drinks here from an EU country, you need to submit excise duty returns and make the duty payments to the Tax Administration.  
  • If your company imports soft drinks from non-EU countries, the products generally become subject to customs procedures, and you need to pay the excise duties to Finnish Customs. The only situation where the duties would have to be paid to the Tax Administration, not Customs, would arise when the customs clearance decision indicates a suspension of the duty payments.
  • For more information about the procedures, see the Finnish Customs website.  

Example 1: A supermarket contacts a seller in France to order soft drinks for retail selling to the supermarket’s customers here in Finland. At the time when the consignment arrives in Finland, the supermarket must pay both the excise duty on soft drinks and the excise duty on beverage containers. Because the seller is in France, an EU country, the supermarket must submit an excise duty return to the Tax Administration, and pay the duties to the Tax Administration, as well. 

Example 2: A supermarket contacts a seller in Japan to order soft drinks for retail selling to the supermarket’s customers. At the time when the consignment arrives in Finland, the supermarket must pay both the excise duty on soft drinks and the excise duty on beverage containers. Because the seller represents a non-EU country, the products are subjected to a customs procedure and the supermarket must file and pay the excise duties to Customs.

The information recorded on your company’s Excise duty authorisation determines whether you report excise duties regularly or casually.

Regular payers of excise duties refers to producers and importers that have submitted an application for a certain authorisation as a payer of duties, e.g. as an authorised warehouse keeper, or as a registered consignee. In general, large producer companies and wholesale corporations are regular payers of excise duties. 

Casual payers refers to soft drink importers having no excise duty authorisation, that is, they have no registration of an authorised warehouse keeper or of a registered consignee, etc. 

Casual taxpayers liable for excise duty also include soft drink producers located in Finland that do not have an authorised warehouse keeper’s authorisation and that are not small producers.

However, it is possible for a casual excise duty payer to maintain an ongoing, regular business activity in commercial operations with soft drinks. In general, small grocery stores, supermarkets and cafés are casual payers of excise duties. 

Read more about excise duty authorisations

To casual payers of excise duties – how to proceed: 

When you import any soft drink products into Finland, you need to submit an advance notice, and also an excise duty return, covering both the duty on soft drinks and the duty on beverage containers.

  • 1

    File the advance notices when bringing consignments to Finland from EU territory

    File 2 advance notices, one for soft drinks and the other for beverage containers.

    You need to submit the notices before the products are dispatched or their transportation to Finland begins. Advance notices are valid only once, and they only concern one dispatched lot. 

    If you are a producer of soft drinks, there is no need for you to submit an advance notice (that would concern your soft drinks).

    Log in to MyTax to submit the notice.

    How to find the advance notice in MyTax

    Go to MyTax

    Advance notices filed on a paper form are only accepted as an exception. See link at the bottom of the page.
  • 2

    File the return and pay the duties

    File 2 returns for the excise duties, one for soft drinks and the other for beverage containers. 

    The due date for filing these 2 excise duties is the same as the due date for paying them. File the returns and pay the duties by the 12th day of the calendar month following the date when you received the consignment.  

    Note that you have to file an excise duty return only if you had operations subject to excise duty during the reportable duty period.

    File the return and pay the duties in MyTax. 

    Alternatively, you can use the Tax Administration’s API to file your returns.

    Paper forms are only accepted as an exception.

  • Read more about filing and paying (Casual taxpayer) 

     

To regular payers – how to proceed:

When you import any soft drink products into Finland, you are only expected to submit an excise duty return for the duty on soft drinks, and for the duty on beverage containers. In other words, there is no requirement to file an advance notice.

  • File tax returns and pay the duties monthly

    If your company is an authorised warehouse keeper, submit the returns every month, and pay both the soft drink duty and the beverage containers duty at the time when the products get released from the tax warehouse to consumption.

    If your company is an registered consignee, submit the returns every month and pay both the soft drink duty and the beverage containers duty for the products received. 

    Make sure to submit the returns every month, both for the soft drink duty and the beverage containers duty although there would be no excise duty to pay for the month concerned.  

    Your due date for the returns and for paying the duties is the 12th day of the second calendar month following the reportable period. Your company’s reportable excise duty period is the calendar month.  

    Example: For your operations in March, the due date for excise-duty filing and payment is 12 May.

    Submit the return and send the duty payment in MyTax. 

    Alternatively, you can use the Tax Administration’s API to file your excise duty returns.

    Paper forms are only accepted as an exception.

  • Read more about filing and paying (Regular taxpayer) 

     

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Page last updated 4/15/2026