Holding and Movements Assurance Guidance

HMAG70820 - Importing Excise Goods: Amendments to the customs and excise procedure declared on importation

This applies when an importer requests a post clearance amendment after the goods have left the place of importation to change the procedure code from an excise duty paid procedure (the goods have already been ‘released for consumption’) to an excise duty suspension procedure such as customs or excise warehousing.

Where excise goods are imported into the United Kingdom, there is an excise duty point unless the goods are placed immediately under a customs suspensive procedure or arrangement, such as customs warehousing, or the goods are released from the free circulation procedure and entered to an excise duty suspension arrangement, such as excise warehousing.

Therefore, where excise goods have been declared to free circulation and have not been entered into excise duty suspension in either a customs or excise procedure, an excise duty point occurs under regulation 5 of The Excise Goods (Holding, Movement and Duty Point) Regulations 2010 (HMDP regulations), in conjunction with regulation 6(1)(d). As such, excise duty is due on those goods. Under regulation 20 of the HMDP regulations, the excise duty must be paid at or before the excise duty point.

Although there are provisions in customs legislation which allow a customs import declaration to be withdrawn and for the goods to be entered to a customs special procedure such as customs warehousing, there is no such provision within excise legislation. This means that once an excise duty point occurs, it is not possible for those goods to be placed back into excise duty suspension either under a customs suspensive procedure or an excise duty suspension arrangement. As such, the status of those goods is UK excise duty paid.  

If the importer decides to re-enter these goods to a customs special procedure, they will need to be able to provide evidence to demonstrate that the excise duty has already been paid on those goods once they are subsequently released from the customs warehousing procedure. The importer should  therefore provide a copy of the excise duty payment document (the customs declaration) to anyone who is required to account for the excise duty further down the supply chain. This should prevent excise duty being paid twice on those goods.   

It is also not possible to replace the customs import declaration with the intention of entering the goods into excise duty suspension in a tax warehouse because the excise duty point has already occurred on importation.

However, in cases where an importer has used the incorrect procedure on the customs import declaration but has already arranged for a Registered Consignor to enter those goods onto EMCS with a valid eAD before the goods were moved from the port, those goods are considered to have entered an excise duty suspension arrangement. Therefore, the excise duty can be repaid if we are satisfied that the goods arrived at their legitimate destination, and a valid report of receipt as been submitted to EMCS.

Where the excise goods are re-exported, a claim to excise duty drawback may be possible if the exporter meets the conditions in excise notice 207.

Procedure declared	Procedure to be amended to	Action to take
4000	7100 5100 5300 7800	Reject the request to repay UK excise duty An excise duty point occurred under regulation 5 of The Excise Goods (Holding, Movement and Duty Point) Regulations 2010 (HMDP regulations), in conjunction with regulation 6(1)(d). Excise duty is due as per the procedure declared. There is no provision in excise legislation to allow goods to enter a customs special procedure after an excise duty point has occurred.
4000	0700	There are two options here, depending on whether the importer has complied with the excise duty suspension arrangements. Accept the request to repay UK excise duty This is allowable in cases where a Registered Consignor has completed a valid eAD before the goods were moved from the port, and a report of receipt has been submitted on EMCS for the whole consignment by the receiving warehouse. Reject the request to repay UK excise duty This is not allowable where a Registered Consignor has not completed a valid eAD. An excise duty point occurred under regulation 5 of The Excise Goods (Holding, Movement and Duty Point) Regulations 2010 (HMDP regulations), in conjunction with regulation 6(1)(d). As such, excise duty is due as per the procedure declared. There is no provision in excise legislation to allow goods to enter an excise duty suspension arrangement after an excise duty point has occurred.
0700	7100 5100 5300	Reject the request to enter the goods to a customs special procedure Where excise goods are removed from an excise warehouse, an excise duty point occurs under regulation 5 of The Excise Goods (Holding, Movement and Duty Point) Regulations 2010 (HMDP regulations), in conjunction with regulations 6(1)(a) and 7(1)(a). Excise duty must be paid at or before the excise duty point as per regulation 20 of the HMDP regulations. It is therefore not possible to remove goods from excise duty suspension and subsequently enter them to a customs special procedure without creating an excise duty point on removal from the excise (tax) warehouse. Excise duty is therefore due on those goods. If this amendment is allowed, HMRC must collect the UK excise duty when the goods are removed from excise duty suspension. This would result in UK excise duty paid goods being held in a customs special procedure.