What roasters need to consider. A guide
Coffee roasters in Germany have to pay the coffee tax. EUR 2.19 per kilogram of roasted coffee goes to the state. When does the coffee tax have to be paid, how does the procedure work, and how can roasting companies handle it easily and practically? A short guide for roasting companies, compiled by the Black Hen roasting company in Saarbrücken.
Since 1948, coffee roasters have had to pay the coffee tax. Until further notice, roasting companies have to pay the state 2.19 euros per kilogram of roasted coffee. There is no lower or marginal income limit. Every gram counts - the tax is due when the roasted coffee enters an economic cycle. Efforts by the BMZ and Fairtrade to abolish the coffee tax on fairly traded coffee came to nothing in 2021 .
Unlike a tax return, where documents must be sent to the tax authority, the coffee tax is collected from coffee roasters by the Federal Customs Administration. This physical test recalls the 18th century origin of the coffee tax , as the so-called Coffee sniffer looking for coffee. The Tegernseer Kaffeerösterei has written an exciting blog about it.
What does a coffee roasting company have to do now?
Our friends from Black Hen in Saarbrücken have summarized the process and documented it with pictures.
Coffee Roasters Guide
Author: Kolja Conrad
When setting up a roasting company, a so-called “Tax warehouse” can be applied for. A distinction is made as to whether a roasting company taxes the roasted coffee directly when it is produced (most common case) or only when it is sold.
This is particularly the case if it is planned to sell at least some of the roasted coffee to (European) countries where this coffee tax is of course not levied. A “real” tax warehouse must be set up here, to which unauthorized persons cannot access, but which customs officials can access at any time for audit purposes. The less complex option is to tax the coffee directly after the roasting process.
Step 1: Weigh the green coffee
The green coffee is weighed before the roasting process and the weight is recorded batch by batch in the so-called “roasting book”. Since you work with defined batch sizes and this information is also interesting for merchandise management, this does not represent any additional effort.
Step 2: Weigh the roasted coffee
After the roasting process, the roasted coffee is weighed and the roasting loss is determined. This usually happens when pouring the coffee from the stoner into larger buckets. These values are also noted in the roasting book.
Step 3: Add roasting book
The amount of roasted coffee produced on a roasting day and the amount of green coffee used are summarized in the roasting book.
Step 4: The stock book
At the end of each month, the quantities of roasted coffee produced from all roasting days are added up and recorded in the “stock book” stating the batch numbers.
In addition, this quantity must be submitted to the main customs office using form 1807 “Monthly tax declaration for coffee and/or goods containing coffee”. Coffee tax of €2.19 is due per kilogram of roasted coffee, which must be paid by the 10th of the following month.
Step 5: Coffee inventory registration / Form 1830
In principle, only the monthly quantities are finally summarized here and any deviations are addressed. This “inventory” is considered a type of inventory that must be reported to customs inspectors 14 days in advance - even if it usually means nothing more than printing out a form. This inventory report must only be carried out once a year at the end of the year.
Notes on the procedure
Taxed roasted coffee that is not sold for whatever reason must be collected and destroyed under the supervision of a customs officer in order to recover the tax paid. To do this, an “application for relief from coffee tax” must be submitted in the monthly coffee tax registration.
Each main customs office can decide in which form the roasting book is kept: analogue, digital, as an Excel table, Cropster extracts, etc.
In Saarland, the roasting book must be kept manually because this process is supposedly tamper-proof.
Customs officers can check roasting and storage records at any time, both registered and unannounced. All sums are recorded and it is checked to what extent the stated roasting loss is realistic or not.
If you miss the monthly registration of the coffee tax or the inventory (or the previous report), fines of up to €8,000.00 can be imposed.
There is no brochure or any kind of course in which the future tax warehouse owner is informed about his/her tasks and obligations. Here you have to rely on the responsible customs officials to be happy to explain everything.
In detail, however, it appears that very few people have contact with roasting companies during their training or career and they usually don't know exactly what needs to be done and how (and point this out “Practical handbook for coffee tax” by Uwe Mühlenhardt and Johannes Hielscher).
Comments on the coffee tax itself
The otherwise very strict declaration requirement for food is sometimes very relaxed for coffee (and tea) products (what exactly is in the package? where does the coffee come from?). Apparently (!) this is due to the fact that the coffee industry lobby does not want to legally attack the completely outdated coffee tax in exchange for a lax declaration requirement. High tax revenue in exchange for lax declaration requirements, so to speak - but one would have to check whether this is true.
I have mixed feelings about the effort mentioned at the beginning to waive the coffee tax for fair trade coffee. Basically, I find it very blatant that the German federal government receives almost as much money for 1kg of roasted coffee as a farmer who grew the coffee (in the lower price segment) - and (to put it simply) part of it goes back to the global south as development aid to send back.
Relief for fair trade coffee would reduce price pressure and actually ensure more of it comes onto the market. On the other hand, it would become much more lucrative for the industry to undermine and cheat fair models.
If you have any questions about the coffee tax
Black Hen: Contact
German Coffee Association: Contact
