- Feature
- Multiple excise duties per item
- Availability
- Preview (per the 29.0 feature list)
- Industry focus
- Soft drinks and beverage manufacturing
In many countries, a single bottle of soft drink can attract more than one levy. There may be a tax on its sugar content and another on its plastic packaging, sometimes with alcohol or environmental duties for other ranges. Until now, Business Central could link each item to only one excise tax type. Version 29.0 changes that.
The industry challenge
A beverage producer might sell hundreds of products, each with its own tax profile:
- Sugar-sweetened drinks subject to a soft drinks levy, often tiered by sugar content
- Plastic bottles subject to a plastic packaging tax
- Some ranges subject to other duties, depending on the market
When the ERP supports only one excise type per item, finance teams resort to workarounds. They create duplicate item records, add manual journal entries or customize the system. Each workaround adds risk. Excise is heavily audited, and mistakes lead to penalties and back-payments.
What Microsoft delivered in Business Central 29.0
According to Microsoft, Business Central 29.0 lets you associate multiple excise duty definitions with a single item and calculates all of them during transactions. Microsoft uses the example of an item liable for both plastic and sugar tax. Key capabilities include:
- Assigning several excise duty configurations to the same inventory item
- Calculating all applicable excise duties automatically during purchasing and vendor-related transactions
- Supporting complex scenarios where products face more than one levy
- Reducing the need for workarounds, customizations or separate item records
An MVP walk-through of the release shows how the set-up changes. The single excise tab on the item card is replaced by an Excise Taxes action where several excise configurations can be assigned. In testing, generating excise journal entries created entries for each configured excise type.
Where the value shows up
| Business area | Impact for a beverage producer |
|---|---|
| Tax accuracy | Every applicable levy calculated for every item |
| Master data | No duplicate items created just for tax reasons |
| Finance workload | Fewer manual excise journals and adjustments |
| Compliance | Consistent, transparent calculations for audits |
| Product launches | New products set up with all their levies from day one |
The master-data benefit is easy to overlook. Duplicate items created for tax reasons cause problems everywhere, in stock, pricing, planning and reporting. Removing them simplifies the whole business.
A worked scenario
Consider a regional soft drinks producer with 120 products in glass, can and plastic formats (an illustrative example). Its plastic-bottled sugary drinks are subject to both a sugar levy and a plastic packaging tax.
Before 29.0, the finance team calculated the plastic tax in a spreadsheet each month and posted it with a manual journal, because the items already used their single excise slot for the sugar levy. With Business Central 29.0, each plastic-bottled product is assigned both excise configurations. Transactions calculate both levies automatically, and the excise journal produces entries for each tax type. The month-end spreadsheet disappears.
Adoption considerations
- Check availability in your environment. Confirm whether the feature is in preview or general availability for your localization.
- Review item tax profiles. List every levy that applies to each product before configuring.
- Retire workarounds carefully. Plan how to stop manual journals and merge duplicate items without breaking history.
- Involve tax advisers. Confirm rates, units of measure and tax bases with professionals.
- Test the full cycle. Run purchases, sales and the excise journal in a sandbox before going live.
The bottom line
For beverage producers, layered excise duties are a growing reality as governments use taxes to shape health and environmental behaviour. Multiple excise duties per item in Business Central 29.0 lets the system model those obligations as they really are. The result is fewer workarounds, cleaner master data and more confidence when the tax inspector calls.
If excise calculations rely on spreadsheets or duplicate items in your business, it's worth reviewing your set-up with an experienced Business Central adviser.
Sources: Microsoft roadmap 573306 · Dynamics 365 Lab: Calculate multiple excise duties per item