HMASABN5030 - Detail of the scheme: What is scenario 2 and what conditions must be met for a warehousekeeper to abandon goods?

In Scenario 2 a warehousekeeper becomes liable for excise duty on excise goods as a resultof circumstances not related to the expiry of the initial period (i.e.):

  • The registration of an owner of goods (or duty representative) has been revoked, or,
  • An unregistered owner may have purchased relevant goods from a registered owner whilst they are held within the warehouse, or,
  • A non-UK trader storing goods in the warehouse is no longer represented by a UK duty representative.

In these circumstances the warehousekeeper can abandon goods if the followingconditions are met:

  1. The goods must not be owned by the warehousekeeper at the excise duty point
     
  2. The goods must be relevant goods (see page HMASABN3030)
     
  3. The warehousekeeper must abandon the goods to HMRC immediately following the excise duty point.
     
  4. And that duty had not been paid or accounted for on those goods.

For goods to be abandoned under Scenario 2 either the registered owner or the dutyrepresentative must have failed to meet one of the following additional legalrequirements:

The new owner failed to provide the authorised warehousekeeper with a copy of his certificate of registration prior to buying relevant goods and is, therefore, not a registered person.
 

  1. The owner failed to immediately give written notice to the warehousekeeper that his registration had been revoked.
     
  2. The new duty representative failed to provide the authorised warehousekeeper with a copy of his registration prior to relevant goods being bought by his principal (customer) or a duty representative no longer acts on behalf of a foreign owner.
     
  3. The duty representative failed to immediately give written notice to the warehousekeeper that his registration had been revoked.
     
  4. That duty had not been paid or accounted for on or before the duty point.

The excise duty point occurs when the goods are no longer owned by a registered owneror when there ceased to be a duty representative acting as the owner’s agent.