Excise duty returns

BrewOS calculates every month the figures for the excise duty returns filed with the Finnish Tax Administration (Vero):

Excise duty: the excise duty return for alcohol and alcoholic beverage tax
Beverage packaging tax: the beverage packaging tax return
Soft drink tax: the soft drink tax return

You will find the pages under Reports > Authorities. You can transfer the figures to OmaVero yourself or send the return directly from BrewOS to Vero's VeroAPI interface.

The figures are based on the tax account events (shipments, tap sales, export sales and customer returns) and, for alcohol duty, also on stock removals and transfers. BrewOS does not know what you have reported directly in OmaVero, and it does not give tax advice. The reporting obligation, deadlines, tax rates and exemptions are explained on Vero's website vero.fi.

Before the first return

Check these settings, because they affect the calculation:

Products' tax groups. On each product's page, under Product settings, choose the alcohol and alcoholic beverage tax product group, the beverage packaging tax product group (customs tariff heading) and, if needed, the beverage packaging tax exemption basis or the soft drink tax group. If the law has changed while you use BrewOS, the group is chosen separately for each period of the law (for example the soft drink tax sugar tiers from 1 April 2026), and each period's return uses the group of that period. If the products' tax groups need checking, the home page shows the link Check the products' tax groups. See Products.
Small brewery discount. BrewOS calculates the reduction batch by batch from the small brewery ledger (see Small brewery and beverage packaging tax relief tracking below). On the Reports > Small brewery and beverage packaging tax relief page, check the year's details: whether the brewery meets the conditions for the reduction for the whole year, how much of the year's beer was produced before you started recording production in BrewOS, and the previous year's production if BrewOS does not have it. If the brewery is not entitled to the reduction, clear The brewery meets the conditions for the small brewery reduction for the whole year on the same page.
Own production. If you also sell beer made by others (for example imports, resold or contract-manufactured products), link these products to a product group in which Own production is not selected. Product groups are managed on the Products > Product groups page (also through the link manage product groups on the product page), and a group can be a drink group or a package group. A product is own production unless one of its groups is marked as not own production, so a product without product groups is counted as own production.
The Business ID has been saved under Settings > Company details. It is needed for electronic sending.

Alcohol duty excise tax return

Open Reports > Excise duty.
Choose the month under Period. The menu has the last 36 months, and the current month is the default.
Check the figures under Up-to-date data.

One return covering all products is filed for the period. Own production and production other than your own are in different tax classes on the same return:

Beer of own production is reported in the small brewery tax classes 1194–1197 (alcohol content at most 3.5 %) and 1294–1297 (over 3.5 %), and the small brewery reduction is deducted from its tax. The last digit of the class gives the reduction: 94 = 50 %, 95 = 30 %, 96 = 20 % and 97 = 10 %. It depends on how much beer had been produced in the year when the batch was produced, not on when it is sold. The same period can therefore have both 1294 and 1295 rows.
Production other than your own is reported in tax classes 11 and 12 at full tax, unless bought-in small brewery beer has been given a tier (see below). The same applies to all beer if the year gives no small brewery reduction.
In other product groups (for example wines and other fermented beverages 21–25, intermediate products 31–32 and ethyl alcohol 41–43) own production has no significance, and the quantities are added together.

Rows whose tax has been calculated with the small brewery reduction are marked Small brewery discount −n %.

If there are notes at the top of the page, check them before filing: the year gives no small brewery reduction, the period has already been sent to VeroAPI but the figures have changed, the tier of a batch has changed, or some beer is reported with the default tier because its batch could not be traced (for example a balance entered by hand or an old return). Give an untraced batch a tier on the stock entry's page.

What goes into the return

The taxable quantity consists of the month's

shipments, tap sales and customer returns (returns reduce the quantity). Exports and shipments to another bonded warehouse are not included.
taxable stock removals recorded on the warehouse's Removals tab with the code Unexplained consumption or Withdrawal for own use.

The tax-free quantity is reported by code:

171A: movements under the duty suspension arrangement, i.e. shipments to the customer's bonded warehouse (a bonded warehouse number has been saved for the customer's delivery location) and transfers between your own warehouses
171B: export (tax events that have an export country)
9H1, 10H1 and 811: tax-free stock removals recorded on the Removals tab with the corresponding code

Removals with the code KVK (Correction of a booking error) are not included in the return at all.

Tables

Under Up-to-date data you first see the period's totals: the Taxable quantity in litres, the Alcohol tax in euros and the tax-free quantity for each code (for example Tax-free: 171A). Below them there are two tables:

By tax class: for each tax class (column Product group) the taxable quantity in litres, the quantity of ethyl alcohol in centilitres (eacl), the tax-free quantities by code and the alcohol duty in euros.
By product group: the same details broken down by tax class and alcohol content (for example "1294 : abv 5,5 %"). Use this table if you report excise duty in OmaVero by product group and alcohol content.

BrewOS rounds the alcohol quantity and the cents of the tax down. If the period has no events, the page says No events to report for the period.

Small brewery and beverage packaging tax relief tracking

Under section 9 of the Alcohol Tax Act the reduction is 50 % for the first 500 000 litres of beer in a calendar year, 30 % up to 3 000 000 litres, 20 % up to 5 500 000 litres and 10 % up to 10 000 000 litres. Beyond that the beer pays full tax, and if the year's production exceeds 15 000 000 litres, there is no reduction for the whole year. According to Vero's guidance, the production records must show which tier each production batch belongs to.

The Reports > Small brewery and beverage packaging tax relief page is these records. Choose the year under Year (the current year and the five before it). The top of the page shows the Year's production, the Next litre produced (the tier the next litre produced falls into, and the litres left in that tier) and the Previous year's production. The page also has:

Small brewery ledger on its own page (button at the top of the page), 50 entries a page. It lists every production entry in production order: packings from a tank and beer sold from a tap. Each shows the year's cumulative production before the entry and the litres per tier. If a batch crosses a tier limit, it is split between two tiers to the litre. You can download the ledger with the Ledger CSV button for a tax audit.
Reduction tiers: the litres produced in each tier, the day the tier was reached and the beer in stock per tier at the start of the year and now.
Beer released per tier month by month, as the excise returns report it.
To correct: periods sent to VeroAPI whose figures have changed, and batches whose tier has changed after they were first recorded (for example when a packing is added on an earlier day or the year's details are changed). File a replacement return for these periods and then press Acknowledge the changes as handled.
The year's details: whether the conditions are met for the whole year, beer produced outside BrewOS and the previous year's production.

Only the account owner can change the year's details and acknowledge tier changes.

A transfer to another warehouse, repacking and assembling multipacks are not production: the new batch inherits its tier from what it was made from, and the entry's page shows which batches it was made from. A stock entry made by hand that is included in the packing notification is own production. For other entries made by hand (bought-in beer, an opening balance, a correction) choose the Small brewery discount tier when recording it or on the entry's page. Bought-in small brewery beer is reported in the tier the producer made it in. If the batch is not known, enter the producer's previous year's production and BrewOS chooses the lowest tier the beer can belong to. Record the producer and the evidence of its conditions in the batch details.

A customer return is reported in the tier of the delivery the returned beer left in. When beer is delivered tax-free to another tax warehouse, the packing list and delivery instructions show the beer's small brewery reduction. On the EMCS electronic administrative document, which can be sent through an AI agent (see OAuth and the AI interface (MCP)), BrewOS adds to the lines of your own small brewery beer the independent small producer declaration and the previous year's production in hectolitres.

Entering the figures in OmaVero manually

In BrewOS, choose the period and check that the tax account has no incomplete events.
Sign in to OmaVero and open the period's excise duty return.
Enter for each tax class shown in the BrewOS table the taxable quantity (and the eacl quantity if needed) and the tax-free quantities by code.
Compare the tax calculated by OmaVero with the BrewOS calculation before you send the return.

BrewOS cannot see returns filed in OmaVero. You can mark the period as handled in the home page's list of deadlines with the Done button. The mark is only a reminder for yourself.

You will find instructions for filling in the return on the vero.fi website.

Beverage packaging tax return

Open Reports > Beverage packaging tax.
Choose the month. The menu has the last 48 months.

The calculation includes the month's tax events and taxable stock removals (Unexplained consumption and Withdrawal for own use) for products whose package size is at most 5 litres. Stock removals are released for consumption just like deliveries. Exports and shipments to another bonded warehouse are not included. No product group needs to be chosen for packages over 5 litres; BrewOS leaves them out automatically.

The main table shows the Customs tariff heading, the Taxable quantity and the Beverage packaging tax. The litre quantity is truncated to two decimals. Products whose beverage packaging tax product group is No beverage packaging tax are shown on the row Tax-free, and the row states the exemption basis (for example an approved return system). If a product is missing an exemption basis, the row is shown in red.

The section Breakdown by product group, product and customer shows which products and customers the quantities come from. Click a product if you want to correct its product group. Events without a shipment (for example customer returns) are shown with the customer (no customer). Tap sales are not included in the beverage packaging tax or soft drink tax calculation.

Palpa and small producers. On the Settings > Authorities page you can mark the company as a member of Palpa or as a registered small producer. These markings do not change the calculation; BrewOS always calculates the beverage packaging tax, so that you can also see the value of the tax exemption. Find out about your reporting obligation from Vero's guidance.

The small producer limit. No beverage packaging tax is paid if the beverage packages an independent producer releases for consumption in a calendar year contain at most 70 000 litres (Act on the excise duty on certain beverage packages, section 1, subsection 3). If the limit is exceeded, the tax is paid on the whole year's volume, not only on the excess. When the company is marked as a registered small producer, the beverage packaging tax return page shows the year's total up to the end of the period, and the Reports > Small brewery and beverage packaging tax relief page shows the monthly volumes, the limit, the calculated tax aid and the de minimis aid over three years (at most 300 000 euros in three consecutive tax years). The limit counts the same quantities as the beverage packaging tax return, that is deliveries and taxable stock removals of all packages of at most 5 litres, including those in a return system. The calculated tax aid is the tax that would have been paid on packages outside a return system. Report the production volume and other aid received every year in OmaVero with a notification of changes to the register details by the end of February.

Deadline reminder. The home page reminds you of the beverage packaging tax return's deadline. If your company is not obliged to report, you can hide the reminder with the Not applicable to company button on the home page or on the Settings > Authorities page under Due date reminder on the home page. In the same place you can also turn the reminder back on.

Soft drink tax return

Open Reports > Soft drink tax.
Choose the month. The menu has the last 48 months.

The calculation shows the month's taxable quantity in litres by soft drink tax product group. It includes products for which a soft drink tax group has been chosen. Exports and shipments to another bonded warehouse are not included. There is no limit on package size.

BrewOS does not calculate the soft drink tax amount in euros; only the litres go on the return. The Breakdown by product group, product and customer works in the same way as for the beverage packaging tax.

The soft drink tax group is chosen on the product page. The choice is available only for products whose alcohol duty product group is No alcohol or alcoholic beverage tax. The group is chosen separately for the time before 1 April 2026 and for the sugar-content tiers that apply from then on (groups B–F).

Electronic sending to VeroAPI

All three return pages have a section Electronic returns from which you can send the period's return directly to Vero.

Prerequisites

The company's Business ID has been saved under Settings > Company details.
A VeroAPI contact person has been saved and your company has given BrewOS a Suomi.fi authorisation. See Suomi.fi authorisation for VeroAPI.

If the page shows the notice VeroAPI connection is not in use, electronic sending is not available and the send button is greyed out. In that case contact BrewOS support.

Sending the return

Choose the period and check the figures under Up-to-date data. If necessary, correct the products' details or the tax account events.
Check the status row of the Electronic returns section. Environment tells which Vero environment the return is sent to. Real returns are sent to the production environment.
Press Submit electronic return and confirm the sending.
After a successful sending, the period's list of returns shows the status delivered to the Finnish Tax Administration and the identifier given by Vero.

The return contains the up-to-date figures at the moment of sending. The button is shown only if the period has rows to report. If you need to file a return for a period with no events, do it in OmaVero.

If sending fails, the message VeroAPI sending failed and the reason for the error appear at the top of the page. If the error occurred only in the connection with Vero, a row with the status error in sending is also added to the list of returns. Typical causes are a missing Business ID, a missing contact person or a missing or expired Suomi.fi authorisation. Fix the cause and send the return again.

The beverage packaging tax page may show a warning that some of the tax-free rows are left out of the sending. This happens if a product is missing the beverage packaging tax exemption basis. Choose the exemption basis on the product page before sending.

Replacement return

When a return has already been sent for the period, a new sending is made as a replacement return that replaces the one sent earlier.

First correct the incorrect details in BrewOS.
Next to the send button, choose the Reason for correction: Calculation error, Change in case law, Guidance received in a tax audit or Error in interpreting the law. The button becomes active only once a reason has been chosen.
Press Submit electronic return and confirm the sending.

Successful sendings and who made them are recorded in the event log.

Page last updated 23 Oct 2026 16:28