Soft Drinks Industry Levy credit for exported drinks (notice 4)
Find out if you can claim a Soft Drinks Industry Levy credit for exported drinks, and what evidence you need to get and keep.
Who can claim a levy credit
You can claim a levy credit on your Soft Drinks Industry Levy returns for drinks that you were liable to pay the levy on and are:
- exported by you or someone else in the supply chain
- reasonably expected to be exported by someone else
You can only claim the credit if you have either accounted for the levy on the exported drinks on a previous return, or are declaring the levy on those drinks in the same return in which you are claiming the credit.
You will not be entitled to claim a levy credit if you export the drinks but were not liable to pay the levy directly to HMRC.
Example
- Company A packages the soft drinks and pays the levy to HMRC on those drinks.
- Company B buys the soft drinks from company A and supplies them to Company C.
- Company C exports them to their customer who is based outside of the UK.
Only Company A can claim the export credit on those soft drinks.
Find out if you can claim a credit for lost or destroyed drinks.
How to claim a levy credit
You’ll need to get and keep the required evidence of the exported drinks, as described in this guidance.
You should claim a levy credit on your quarterly Soft Drinks Industry Levy returns.
You have 2 years from the date that the drinks became chargeable to the levy to claim a levy credit.
Credit for exported drinks
To claim a levy credit for drinks that have already been exported, you must have the required evidence when you make your claim.
To claim a levy credit for drinks that you expect will be exported by someone else, you must get the required evidence that the export has happened. You should get this by the end of the next reporting period after the period for which you made the claim. If you do not get the evidence by then, you must add the levy credit back in your next return.
The evidence you need to get and keep depends on how and where the drinks are exported.
Evidence you need for exported drinks
The text in this section has force of law under regulation 17(2) of the Soft Drink Industry Levy Regulations 2018.
To claim a levy credit for exported drinks, you must get and keep evidence that shows that the drinks have been exported from the UK, and that shows the:
- supplier
- consignor, if different from the supplier
- customer
- brand of drinks that have been exported
- method of transporting the drinks
- route of movement of the drinks
- destination
If the export is not carried out as part of a supply to a customer, the evidence does not need to show the supplier and customer, but it must show the owner of the drinks. Exports of liable drinks to any country, other than drinks moved over land to Ireland, will need to comply with any relevant customs procedures. These, along with the procedures of your freight carrier, will produce paperwork that you can use as evidence to support your levy credit claim. You do not need to have a single document showing all of this information, but all of your evidence together must show the required information. It must also allow HMRC to see that this information relates to the drinks you’ve paid the levy on and are claiming the credit for.
Examples of evidence
Examples of what you can use for evidence of exported drinks include:
- a Goods Departed Message, generated by the National Export System (NES) when the drinks are exported directly out of the UK to a third country
- a screen print of the DEVD (Display Entry Version Details) option 2 in the CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import Export)
- a certified Single Administrative Document (Form C88) Copy 3, stamped by customs at the office of exit from the UK
- an International Consignment Note or Lettre de Voiture International, fully completed by you, the haulier and the receiving customer
- Freight Transport Association transport documents, fully completed and signed by the receiving customer
- confirmation from the NCTS (New Community Transit System) that the community or common transit procedure has been discharged
- authenticated sea waybills
- authenticated air waybills
- PIM/PIEX International consignment notes
- master air waybills or bills of lading
- certificates of shipment containing the full details of the consignment and how it left the UK
If you did not arrange for the drinks to be exported yourself
If you want to claim a levy credit for drinks you did not export yourself, you can get and keep a declaration from the person who arranged the export that:
- confirms that the drinks have been exported
- confirms that they hold documents that shows all of the required evidence for exports set out in this guidance
- commits to keep those documents for at least 6 years from when the claim for an export levy credit is made
- commits to provide those documents to you and HMRC when requested
HMRC will expect you or the person providing the declaration to provide the required evidence if they want to verify that the drinks have been exported. If you, or the person providing the declaration, do not provide the evidence to HMRC on request, your claim for an export levy credit could be refused and you might need to repay any export levy credit you’ve already received.
Evidence for drinks moved over land to Ireland
If drinks are exported to Ireland over land, you’ll need to get and keep evidence to show this. The evidence you need depends on how the drinks are transported.
Drinks transported by road
If the drinks are transported by an independent carrier, you should get a copy of the carrier’s invoice or consignment note, along with evidence that they’ve been delivered to premises in Ireland.
If the drinks are transported as part of a supply to a customer, you should get a copy of the delivery note showing the customer’s:
- name
- address and delivery address, if different
- EU VAT number (if this applies)
- signature, or signature of their authorised representative confirming they’ve received the drinks
If the drinks are transported as part of your general stock on hand, you need to get records that show the movement and reallocation of the drinks to the premises in Ireland.
Drinks transported by rail
If the drinks are transported by rail, you’ll need the consignor’s copy of the consignment note, signed by the railway official accepting the drinks for delivery to your customer.
Drinks collected by the customer or their representative
If the drinks are collected by the customer or authorised representative, you’ll need the written order completed by the customer showing the:
- customer’s name, address and EU VAT number
- name of the authorised representative collecting the drinks (if this applies)
- address the drinks will be delivered to
- vehicle registration number of the transport used
- signature of the customer or authorised representative confirming they’ve received the drinks
Evidence for drinks exported by your customer or a subsequent customer
If you have not exported the drinks, but they have been exported by someone below you in the supply chain, you will need to get evidence of the export from them so that you can claim the levy credit.
You’ll also need to get and keep evidence that the exported drinks were the same ones you paid the levy on. You should be able to show this using transactional documents showing evidence that you supplied the drinks to your customer, and any further supply to other operators in the chain.
Examples of this kind of evidence include:
- the customer’s order
- the sales contract
- internal company records
- a tax invoice
- proof of dispatch and receipt of the drinks
- proof of payment
Drinks exported as part of a commercial supply
If the export of the drinks is part of a supply to a customer, evidence of the transaction may be used as part of your evidence of export.
Examples of this kind of evidence include:
- the customer’s order
- the sales contract
- internal company records
- the export sales invoice
- an advice note
- proof of payment
Commercially sensitive evidence
To support your claim for a levy credit, you might need to get evidence from someone else who is involved in the export. For HMRC to accept evidence, the documents must show that the drinks exported were the same as those on which the levy has been paid.
The documents must also allow HMRC to:
- see the information required
- follow an audit trail through the supply chain
If they do not want to disclose the commercial arrangements they have with their own customers, they can give you redacted documents. These documents will need to include the customer’s name and address, but if HMRC can still see the chain of custody of the drinks without it (like by using batch numbers), then this and other information can be redacted.
Drinks sold or given to international passengers
The text in this section has force of law under regulation 17(2) of the Soft Drink Industry Levy Regulations 2018.
If liable drinks leave the UK as stores on international passenger transportation, then as well as the general export information required, you must also include more information with your evidence.
You must include a signed statement from either the operator of the international passenger transport, or business supplying liable soft drinks on it, confirming that all of the liable drinks will be consumed on international passenger transport.
If not all of the liable drinks will be consumed on international passenger transport, you must get a signed statement that confirms:
- how they will monitor the volumes which are consumed on international routes
- that they will provide this information to someone who wants to claim an export credit
Last updated 31 December 2020 + show all updates
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This page has been updated because the Brexit transition period has ended.
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Information about lost or destroyed drinks has been removed from this page and published separately.
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First published.