HMAG60810 - Excise Movement and Control System: EMCS searches: Destination Type Code (DTC) searches

The DTC defines the type of consignee. The codes are:

Code Destination Type Explanation
1 Tax warehouse The consignee will be an authorised warehousekeeper and the place of delivery a warehouse.
2 Registered consignee Deliveries to the registered consignee’s premises
3 Temporary registered consignee (TRC) A delivery to a TRC. You should expect to see the TRC’s Temporary Consignment Authorisation (TCA) number (starting GBTCA) showing in the Place of Delivery excise ID field, and the TRC’s GBTC registration number in the consignee excise ID field. However, due to a number of issues with UK EMCS, you may find both fields contain the TCA number.
4 Direct Delivery Deliveries consigned to a registered consignee but delivered to another address. This may be to a client’s address. Registered consignees must be authorised to operate direct delivery. This authorisation can be verified either by looking at the trader’s record on SEED or the trader’s registration certificate.
5 Exempted organisation Deliveries between MS to organisations such as embassies and foreign military bases that are not on the EU or UK SEED databases. Intra-UK movements to exempted organisations are outside the scope of EMCS
6 Export Exports out of the EU. May be direct from the UK or via another EU country (indirect exports)
7 Unknown Only available for energy products transported by sea or inland waterway. A CoD must be submitted by the consignor to define the movement once the consignee is known and before the goods arrive at their destination.

There will be few movements to TRCs and exempted organisations, and the ‘unknown’ destination is Transitory. Other DTC searches may return too many hits unless used with another, restrictive, parameter such as excise ID. A start and end date for the search is always required, but again the search results can be reduced by narrowing the date range. Examples of DTC based searches that could identify movements meriting further investigation include:

  • Exports for a consignor to establish whether they match expected trade patterns and that adequate export evidence is available. The eAD can be compared to the export declaration by using MSS to find the CHIEF export declaration. The ARC should be recorded in Box 40 (some MS allow the ARC to be in box 44).
  • Movements by a specific consignor to exempt organisations to establish if they are credible and match the warehouse returns. If a simple list of exempt organisation movements is required, then a DTC based search is not required. A specific report can be requested for all exempt organisation movements within a specified date range, but this would not be as useful if you only want those dispatched by a particular trader.
  • eADs remaining with the ‘unknown’ DTC for an excessive time.
  • Movements to registered consignees that should have been defined as ‘Direct Deliveries’. (This can be determined by looking at the information provided in the ‘Place of delivery’ field on the eAD. If the information does not match the known address of the registered consignee, it is likely that the movement was a direct delivery). Are they authorised to operate direct delivery?
  • Movements to registered consignees to confirm that duty has been paid.