The Independent Family Brewers of Britain (IFBB) has revealed that its contribution to HM Revenue & Customs in the last tax year totalled almost £500m.

Following research carried out among its 20 members, it is estimated that they and their and employees contributed £496.5m to the UK economy last year.  Of this total more than £200m comrpises excise duty and £169.5m is VAT, equal to 5.8% and 0.2% of the UK’s total tax revenue respectively.

In addition, the Family Brewers have collectively paid over £34m in corporation tax, dwarfing the £6m reportedly paid by technology giant Google, the £1.8m reportedly paid by internet retail giant Amazon and the zero contribution made by coffee chain Starbucks.

The news comes after the Family Brewers announced a turnover of almost £1.6 billion across its members, with 17,000 full-time employees and 21,000 employed with the Family Brewers on a part-time basis.

James Staughton, chairman of the IFBB, said: “These figures speak for themselves.  To help our licensees’ long-term future and profitability, we encourage the Government to scrap the beer duty escalator and consider a reduction in VAT charged in pubs on drink, food and accommodation, in order to offset unfair supermarket competition and stimulate economic growth and employment in our industry.”

This blog post is not by Wobbly Wallet but originally appeared on Beer Today: http://beertoday.co.uk/?p=12224