Sugar tax: German cabinet set to approve two-tier levy from July 2027 today
The coalition settled its dispute: 26 cents per liter from 5 grams of sugar, 32 cents from 8 grams. The remit of a planned care commission is also agreed. Cabinet is due to sign off on Wednesday.
Symbolic image · Photo: Anselm Schüler / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Germany's governing coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats has agreed on a tax on sugary drinks. According to a cabinet draft cited by the RND newspaper network, from July 2027 drinks with at least 5 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters will be taxed at 26 cents per liter, and those with at least 8 grams at 32 cents. Producers making fewer than one million liters of sweetened drinks a year will be exempt. The cabinet is due to approve the plan on Wednesday.
Revenue is projected at 690 million euros in 2027, 925 million in 2028 and about 880 million a year after that. In early October the chancellery had stopped Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil's draft; its third tier of 38 cents has now been dropped. Nine conservative state ministers for agriculture and consumer protection had earlier warned Chancellor Friedrich Merz against the tax in a letter.
The coalition also resolved a dispute over the remit of a planned commission on long-term care. At the SPD's request it will examine a "limit" on rising nursing-home co-payments, though according to RND only as a review mandate. The SPD's term "care cap" does not appear in Health Minister Carsten Linnemann's draft.