EU: Brewing public revenues
The International Center for Alcohol Policies announced on its March 2006 report that the financial revenues for European governments arising from the production and sale of beer, i.e., taxes paid by breweries, beer consumers and employees together, total around 38 billion euros a year, including 19 billion euros in VAT and 10.5 billion euros in excise duties. This represents more than the total annual government expenditure of countries such as Finland or Poland (estimated at around 34 billion euros).