In BC, wine is held hostage behind a wall of high taxation and arcane laws stemming from the prohibition era. It's time to help our wine and hospitality industries by modernizing our wine laws and tax system. Please help us to ... Free the Wine!

Free the Wine!

sensible laws, reasonable taxes

Free the Wine - Join or Login

Contact Your MLA

Please Help Free the Wine by contacting your MLA right now and telling them that BC's taxes on wine are too high.

Click to Contact Your MLA

BC Wine Tax Calculator

Find out how much tax you are really paying on wine purchased in BC with this handy calculator:

BC Liquor Store Wine Tax Calculator

BC Raises Wine Markup from 117% to 123%

Written by Mark Hicken
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 22:05
The BC Liquor Distribution Branch has announced today that the "liquor board markup" on all products will be increased as of July 1, 2010 as part of the implementation of the HST. The introduction of the HST means that the provincial sales tax on alcohol will actually go down from its current 10% to the 7% provincial component of the HST (the 12% HST is made up of 7% provincial sales tax + 5% federal sales tax). In order to prevent consumers from actually receiving a break on the introduction of the HST (maybe that would have been a good idea?) ... the government had previously announced that they would increase liquor board markups to compensate. Today's announcements make changes to the markups across the board for all products. On wine, the liquor board markup will increase from 117% to 123%. On spirits, it goes from 163% to 170%. If you weren't aware of these staggeringly high tax rates ... yes, you are reading those numbers correctly. The stated intention has always been to keep "shelf prices the same". More Info and Updates Here.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 May 2010 21:26 )