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Excise and provincial compliance software · Canada

Two excise statutes and a provincial layer, kept on one ledger.

Beer under the Excise Act; wine, cider and mead under the Excise Act, 2001. Board markups, container deposits, stewardship fees and sales tax on top, per province and territory. BrewCraft writes every duty entry in the same step as the inventory movement that caused it — and you review and file.

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The federal layer

What was fermented decides which Act applies.

The two Acts differ in basis, in the moment duty attaches and in their relief paths. BrewCraft models both from the start, and classes cider and mead as wine under the second Act.

Product class What it is Statute Basis Duty event Relief
Beer Brewed from malt or grain Excise Act Charged per hectolitre Assessed at packaging, on the production day Reduced rates for smaller brewers, with associated brewers counted together
Wine, cider and mead Fermented from an agricultural product other than grain — grapes, apples, honey Excise Act, 2001 Charged per litre At packaging — or on removal, if the wine is held in an excise warehouse Its own relief paths, including exports
The same ledger, as it is stored: one row per event, each with the duty status it left the beer in.
Event Volume Duty status
Fermenter FV-3 Fermentation complete 3,003.000 L Process stock
Process stock. Nothing is assessed yet, and the ledger says so.
Brite tank BT-2 Transfer · 17.000 L loss recorded 2,918.000 L Process stock
Still process stock. 68.000 L stays behind as a measured tank heel.
Packaging run 473 mL cans and 50 L kegs · 47.600 L line waste 2,870.400 L Assessed
Duty is assessed HERE, on the production day. Not at the sale. Not at the shipment.
Finished goods On the pallet, unsold, nobody has ordered it 2,870.400 L Assessed
Already assessed, though nobody has ordered it. This is the part people get wrong.
Shipped Provincial board order, 2,880 cans 1,362.240 L Assessed
Shipping is not a duty event for beer, so the status does not move. The period’s remittance is what makes it duty-paid.
Beer duty is assessed when the beer is packaged. By the fourth stop the whole run is assessed, and none of it has been sold.

Illustrative figures from Kettle Creek Brewing Co., a fictional producer.

What the ledger does

Every litre’s duty status, and every amount owed to whom.

  • Two excise statutes, one ledger

    Beer under the Excise Act, and wine, cider and mead under the Excise Act, 2001 — each with its own basis and its own moment duty attaches. A parallel duty ledger records the status of every litre, written by the same step that moves the stock.

  • Excise periods, reconciled to the litre

    Every period is reconciled to the litre in the terms each statute sets out for its return, and your return figures come with the ledger that supports them. You review and file.

  • Markups, deposits, eco fees and sales tax

    Provincial board markups, container deposits, stewardship fees and GST, HST, PST or QST are kept as four separate amounts with four separate payees — the way your accountant needs them, for each province and territory where they apply.

  • Every rate dated and sourced

    Duty, markup, deposit and fee rates live in effective-dated tables, each traced to its published source, and the rate applied is the one in force on the day that governs.

  • Several sites, several licences, one account

    A brewery with a satellite taproom, a winery with a cidery licence, a group of associated producers — each licence kept separate where the law says it must be, and seen together where you want it to be.

  • An audit trail that cannot be edited

    Every change to a record that matters is kept, append-only, with who made it and when — the evidence behind a return, a recall or a board query.

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The provincial layer

All 13 provinces and territories, each with its own liquor authority.

  • Alberta

    AGLC

  • British Columbia

    BC Liquor Distribution Branch

  • Manitoba

    Liquor & Lotteries

  • New Brunswick

    ANBL

  • Newfoundland and Labrador

    NLC

  • Nova Scotia

    NSLC

  • Northwest Territories

    Territorial liquor authority

  • Nunavut

    Territorial liquor authority

  • Ontario

    LCBO

  • Prince Edward Island

    PEI Liquor Control Commission

  • Québec

    SAQ

  • Saskatchewan

    SLGA

  • Yukon

    Territorial liquor authority

Wherever they apply: board markup, container deposits, stewardship fees, sales tax — kept as four separate amounts with four separate payees, each from a dated table that cites its source.

Why the numbers hold

Never a number your accountant has to unwind.

  • Never a number your accountant has to unwind

    BrewCraft never invents a rate or fills a gap with last year’s figure. When a question has no published answer, it says so and shows you where — instead of producing a confident wrong number that surfaces at audit.

  • Books that balance, or say exactly why not

    An excise period reconciles to the litre before it closes. If it does not, you see the volume nobody has explained, instead of a tolerance band that hides it.

Glasses of beer, wine, cider and spirit raised together in a toast.

Private beta · Limited places

See your own excise period reconcile.

We are onboarding a limited number of Canadian breweries, wineries, cideries, meaderies and distilleries. Early partners get a named person who answers, beta pricing held for twenty-four months, and a real say in what ships next.

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