Guidance

Claim Alcoholic Ingredients Relief

Use the online service or print and post form (EX597) to claim relief on excise duty when you use alcohol in the production or manufacture of eligible articles.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 8 November 2018
• Last updated: 1 February 2025 — See all updates

Who can claim

Use the service or form to claim relief on excise duty on spirits, beer, wine, other fermented products, cider and perry when you use alcohol as an ingredient in:

• drinks that are 1.2% alcohol by volume (ABV) or less
• chocolates for human consumption containing no more than 8.5 litres of alcohol for every 100kg of chocolate
• other foods for human consumption containing no more than 5 litres of alcohol for every 100kg of the final product
• vinegar

To claim relief you’ll need to consider if your product is eligible and calculate your claim amount.

What you need

You’ll need:

• your Customer Reference Number (also known as ETMP number) — if you’ve claimed before, this is the 15 digit reference number we sent you with the remittance advice from your last claim
• your registered business postcode
• the start and end dates for your claim
• details of the final product or final products you’re claiming for, including final product quantity in kilograms — you’ll also need to give details in a separate document of all products made if:
  • there are 10 or more final products and you use the online service
  • there are 20 or more final products and you use the print and post form
• the address where alcoholic product is produced or manufactured
• your worksheet showing how you arrived at your claim figure
• details of your new bank or address details (if these have changed)
• details of any under or over-declarations from previous accounting periods — these must be broken down by final product and included in your worksheet

If you’re a new user, you’ll also need:

• your company Unique Taxpayer Reference
• copies of invoices from the suppliers showing evidence of duty payments
• proof that your product is eligible
• recipes or production sheets that show the alcoholic product used in an eligible product

Make a claim

If you have not made a claim before

You’ll need to use the print and post form (EX597) so we can send you a Customer Reference Number (also known as ETMP number). You can use this to submit future claims using the online service.

To use this form, you’ll need to:

1. Get all of your information together before you start. You will fill this form in online and you cannot save your progress.

2. Fill in form EX597.

3. Print and post it to HMRC, using the postal address shown on the form.

If you’ve claimed before

You can use the online service. To make a claim you’ll need a Government Gateway user ID and password. If you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you claim.

If you cannot claim relief online, you can also use the print and post form (EX597).

Published 8 November 2018
Last updated 1 February 2025 + show all updates

1. 1 February 2025

   Information about when to use the print and post form has been updated.

2. 8 November 2018

   First published.