Vaping duty stamps – penalties and sanctions — CC/FS87
Published 23 April 2026
© Crown copyright 2026
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If you want to purchase or affix duty stamps in the UK, you must follow The Vaping Products (Production, Duty Stamps and Commencement) Regulations 2026. This factsheet tells you about the penalties we may charge and other sanctions we can apply if you do not comply with those regulations.
For more information about vaping products and duty stamps, go to GOV.UK and search ‘preparing for Vaping Products Duty and the Vaping Duty Stamps Scheme’.
This factsheet is one of a series. For the full list, go to GOV.UK and search ‘HMRC compliance checks factsheets’.
About the Vaping Duty Stamps Scheme
From 1 October 2026, all vaping products released for retail sale must carry a vaping duty stamp. You can purchase and affix vaping duty stamps from 1 April 2026 if you’re a:
- UK manufacturer
- warehouse keeper
- UK representative of an overseas manufacturer
To do this, you must apply for the Vaping Duty Stamps Scheme. If we approve your application, you’ll become an ‘approved stamp holder’. Approved stamp holders can purchase duty stamps from the supplier chosen by us and where allowed affix duty stamps.
Penalties for not complying with the regulations
Penalties relating to vaping duty stamps will apply from 1 April 2026. We may charge you penalties if you fail to comply with the regulations or terms of your approval and fail to meet record keeping requirements relating to stamps.
We may charge penalties if you:
- sell, offer for sale, deal in, or package for retail sale unstamped vaping products
- use, possess or deal with an invalid duty stamp, including altered, counterfeit or voided stamps
- fail to affix a duty stamp when required or fail to follow stamp handling rules, including activation or scanning where required
- fail to return, destroy or account for unused duty stamps within required time limits
- lose duty stamps, or a stamp has not been affixed, activated, returned or destroyed within 12 months of issue
- alter a duty stamp after it has been issued or affix an invalid duty stamp to a vaping product
Penalties for dealing in unstamped vaping products
We may charge you a penalty if you sell, offer for sale or deal in unstamped vaping products packaged for retail sale. These penalties apply from 1 October 2026.
To work out the penalty we use the number of retail ‘units’ of unstamped vaping products. A unit means an amount of vaping product packaged for individual retail sale.
If you continue to fail to comply with the regulations we may charge further penalties. If we do, we’ll look at the number of times you’ve failed to comply with the regulations over a ‘relevant period’. The relevant period is 24 months leading up to the day you became liable to the penalty.
The penalty amounts are shown below.
| How many units found on this occasion | First time | Second time | Three or more times |
|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 100 units | £2,500 | £5,000 | £7,500 |
| 100 to 299 units | £5,000 | £7,500 | £10,000 |
| 300 to 499 units | £7,500 | £10,000 | £10,000 |
| 500 or more units | £10,000 | £10,000 | £10,000 |
Penalties for lost, stolen or misused duty stamps
If you’re an approved stamp holder, you’ll be liable to a penalty for any lost, or treated as lost, stolen or misused duty stamps.
A stamp is treated as lost if after 12 months it has not been:
- affixed to a vaping product and activated, for example, the stamp is not scanned and uploaded to the digital system that allows us to track it
- returned to the stamp issuer
- destroyed
We work out the penalty amount for a lost, stolen or misused duty stamp for each individual stamp. If a duty stamp is lost, the penalty applied will be five times the Vaping Products Duty due on a standard 10ml quantity.
We will not charge a penalty if you did not cause the loss, and you took all reasonable steps to prevent the loss.
Forfeiture, and other sanctions
Vaping duty products and duty stamps are liable to forfeiture in circumstances where the rules have not been followed. Forfeiture means seizing and permanently removing from the premises.
We may also seize and permanently remove any lawful vaping products found on your premises at the same time as unlawful vaping products.
Restrictions on buying stamps
If a business keeps failing to comply with the regulations, this includes continuous and repeat offending, we may stop them from buying vaping duty stamps.
Criminal offences
In the most serious cases, we may carry out a criminal investigation and prosecute you. If you’re found guilty and convicted, you could face an unlimited fine or imprisonment for up to 2 years, or both.
If you disagree
If there’s something you do not agree with, please tell us.
If we make a decision that you can appeal against, we’ll write to you about the decision and tell you what to do if you disagree. You’ll usually have 3 options.
Within 30 days, you can:
- send new information to the officer dealing with the check and ask them to consider it
- have your case reviewed by an HMRC officer who has not been involved in the matter
- arrange for an independent tribunal to hear your appeal and decide the matter
You can find out more about appeals in the HMRC1 guidance ‘How to get a review of an HMRC decision’. Go to GOV.UK and search ‘HMRC1’.
If you need help
If you have any health or personal circumstances that may make it difficult for you to deal with us, please tell the officer who has contacted you. We’ll help you in whatever way we can. For more information, go to GOV.UK and search ‘get help from HMRC if you need extra support’.
You can also ask someone else to deal with us on your behalf. For example, a professional adviser, friend or relative. However, we may still need to talk or write to you directly about some things. If we need to write to you, we’ll send a copy to the person you’ve asked us to deal with. If we need to talk to you, they can be with you when we do, if you prefer.
More information
Our privacy notice
Our privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from us when we ask for information or hold information about you. Go to GOV.UK and search ‘HMRC Privacy Notice’.
If you are unhappy with our service
Please tell the person or office you’ve been dealing with. They’ll try to put things right. If you are still unhappy, they’ll tell you how to make a formal complaint.