Sekt Tax: How Much Is It, Since When Has It Existed, What's Coming in 2027?

How Much Is the Sekt Tax per Bottle?

The law states the rate per hectoliter, but in everyday terms it's easier to calculate per bottle. Section 2 of the Sparkling Wine and Intermediate Products Tax Act sets the rate for sparkling wine with at least 6 percent alcohol at €1.36 per liter. For a standard 0.75-liter bottle, that works out to €1.02. For sparkling wine with less than 6 percent alcohol, a reduced rate of 51 cents per liter applies.

The tax is an excise duty and depends only on quantity, not on price. A simple branded Sekt and a Champagne therefore pay exactly the same amount per bottle. For cheap Sekt, this makes up a large share of the retail price; for expensive Champagne, barely any. VAT is then added on top of the sale price including the Sekt tax. Still wine, by contrast, is exempt from any separate excise duty in Germany.

The tax applies to every sparkling wine that enters the market in Germany, regardless of where it was produced. Champagne, Cava, Crémant and Prosecco Spumante pay the same rate on import as German Sekt. It becomes due when the bottles leave the tax warehouse, meaning the warehouse of a winery or importer where untaxed goods may be stored. Sekt destined for export remains tax-free in Germany and is taxed in the destination country according to its own rules.

What counts as sparkling wine? Semi-sparkling wine, frizzante, non-alcoholic

Section 1 of the law determines when a beverage is classified as sparkling wine for tax purposes. Two features are decisive: either it's in a bottle with a sparkling wine closure and special retaining device, meaning a mushroom cork with wire cage, or it has at least 3 bar of overpressure from dissolved carbon dioxide at 20 °C. In addition, the alcohol content must be between 1.2 and 15 percent.

This explains two things you'll notice on the shelf. Semi-sparkling wine like Prosecco Frizzante or Secco stays below 3 bar and often has a screw cap or a cork secured with string instead of a wire cage. As a result, no sparkling wine tax is due. Alcohol-free Sekt falls below the 1.2 percent threshold and is likewise exempt from this tax. The law also covers intermediate products such as Sherry, Port and Madeira, which have their own rates.

How long has the Sekt tax existed?

The Reichstag introduced the tax in 1902, and it came into force on 1 July 1902 to help fund the Imperial war fleet. The fleet has long since disappeared, but the tax has not. Its history, including various interruptions, is told in detail in the journey through the history of sparkling wine.

Today it's an ordinary federal tax with no earmarked purpose. Since 1 July 2009 it has been governed by the Sparkling Wine and Intermediate Products Tax Act. How much it brings in is shown by the statistics: for 2025, the Federal Statistical Office reported around 240.1 million liters of taxed sparkling wine. At €1.36 per liter, the Sekt tax generates revenue in the hundreds of millions of euros for the federal government every year. The tax flows into the general budget, with no tie to a specific purpose.

Sekt tax 2027: What's planned?

In the summer of 2026, the Federal Cabinet approved the draft of a 2027 Budget Accompanying Act. It proposes raising the sparkling wine tax by 20 percent. For sparkling wine with 6 percent alcohol or more, the rate would rise from €1.36 to €1.632 per liter. Per standard bottle, that would mean around €1.22 instead of €1.02 — about 20 cents more.

This isn't law yet. The draft must go through the parliamentary process, and members of the Union faction have announced their intention to block the increase. They point to the difficult situation facing the wine industry, whose sparkling wine sales have been declining for years. Whether and by how much the sparkling wine tax rises in 2027 is therefore up to the Bundestag to decide. Until then, the rate of 136 cents per liter remains in effect.