Moving excise goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland by parcel
Find out the process for sending excise goods by parcel from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
This guidance explains the steps that a business or individual needs to take when sending excise goods, for example, alcohol and tobacco products, in parcels from Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) to Northern Ireland. This includes customs requirements and the need to account for excise duty and the excise duty offset mechanism.
There are different rules and processes required for excise goods moved as freight.
Businesses sending UK excise duty-paid goods by parcel from Great Britain to Northern Ireland
Customs requirements
HMRC has taken a temporary approach to applying customs declaration requirements for businesses (for example, by the Royal Mail Group and express carriers) sending goods in parcels, this includes excise duty-paid goods.
For as long as the temporary arrangements are in place you are not required to make a declaration when you send excise duty-paid goods from Great Britain to other businesses or individuals based in Northern Ireland by parcel.
Find more information on the customs arrangements for sending parcels to and from Northern Ireland.
The temporary customs arrangements do not apply to goods moved by parcel in excise duty suspension, or to goods moved as freight. In these cases you must follow the rules for moving excise goods by freight from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Excise requirements
Accounting for excise duty — the offset mechanism
There is an excise duty charge when excise goods enter Northern Ireland from Great Britain. Where the goods are already UK duty paid, the duty offset mechanism credits the amount of duty paid against the liability that applies on entry to Northern Ireland.
In most cases the amount of excise duty that is chargeable when the goods enter Northern Ireland will be the same as the duty already paid, and the offset mechanism will mean there is no additional amount to pay.
There may be some limited circumstances where the UK excise duty already paid on the goods is less than the amount that is chargeable on entry to Northern Ireland.
This might, for example, be because of a routine duty rate change between the time the duty was first paid on the goods and the time the goods arrive in Northern Ireland and become liable to duty again. In these cases, you will only need to pay the difference between the duty payable in Northern Ireland and the duty already paid.
The duty offset mechanism does not provide for any repayment of excise duty where the rate payable in Northern Ireland is lower than the duty paid in Great Britain.
Using the excise duty offset mechanism when moving excise duty-paid goods by parcel whilst the temporary arrangements are in place
If you’re a business sending excise goods in parcels from Great Britain to Northern Ireland whilst the temporary customs declaration arrangements are in place, you can choose to either:
- delay payment of all additional excise duty you owe until the end of the temporary customs arrangements
- use periodic reporting to account for and pay additional excise duty you owe on goods you move from Great Britain to Northern Ireland
Delaying payment of additional excise duty until the end of the temporary customs arrangements
You can choose to delay payment of any additional excise duty you owe until the end of the temporary customs arrangements. If you choose to delay payment, any additional excise duty will only be payable to HMRC at the time when the temporary customs arrangements end.
Your business will need to keep records as specified in Excise Notice 206 that enable you to make the offset calculation and where applicable, account for any additional excise duty payable at the end of temporary arrangements.
We will publish further guidance for businesses on paying additional excise duty that has been deferred prior to the end of the temporary customs arrangements.
This does not apply to excise goods moved as freight.
Find more information about using the excise duty offset mechanism for freight movements.
Using periodic reporting to account for and pay additional excise duty
If you do not want to delay payment of additional excise duty you owe on goods you move from Great Britain to Northern Ireland until the end of the temporary arrangements, you can choose to use periodic reporting to account for and pay any additional excise duty you owe.
You can find more information on using periodic reporting in Excise Notice 197.
Individuals sending UK excise duty-paid goods by parcel from Great Britain to Northern Ireland
We will publish further guidance for individuals sending excise goods by parcel in due course.
Last updated 13 May 2022 + show all updates
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Guidance about the excise requirements for moving excise goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland by parcel has been updated.
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First published.