Guidance

Excise visits — CC/FS16

Updated 1 April 2022

Excise visits

We are visiting you because you are involved, or appear to be, involved in the buying, selling, importing, exporting, dealing in or handling of goods, or in providing services which are subject to Excise Duty.

If you need help

If you have any health or personal circumstances that may make it difficult for you to deal with this visit, please tell the officer that’s contacted you. We’ll help you in whatever way we can. For more information about this, go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘get help from HMRC if you need extra support’.

You can also ask someone else to deal with us on your behalf — for example, a professional adviser, friend or relative. We may however still need to talk or write to you directly about some things. If we need to write to you, we’ll send a copy to the person you’ve asked us to deal with. If we need to talk to you, they can be with you when we do, if you prefer.

Why we carry out visits

We carry out visits to inspect excise goods and any items linked to those goods or relevant services. We do this to make sure that:

• excise controls and laws are being operated correctly
• the right amount of Excise Duty is paid or reclaimed at the right time

We do not have to tell you in advance that we are coming.

Allowing us to carry out an inspection

You must allow us to carry out an inspection. If you do not, we may:

• withdraw any approval that we have given you
• prosecute you

You have the right to seek advice, but we will not delay carrying out our inspection while you do this.

During the visit

Our officers will show you their identification when they arrive. We will:

• explain why we are visiting and what we want to see
• not enter the parts of the premises that are used solely as your home, unless you invite us to
• inspect excise goods and any items linked to those goods or relevant services
• take reasonable action to inspect any part of the premises that are used in connection with excise goods or services — it does not matter if you do not own or occupy the premises
• inspect documents or ask for information relating to the excise goods or services

You must open places, such as storerooms, so that we can check for any goods or items. We may mark goods, documents or items to show that we’ve inspected them.

We can inspect any documents relating to the business. This includes information held on computers or data storage devices.

You must give us any documents or information that we ask for that relate to the excise goods or services.

If you do not provide the information or documents that we ask for, we may charge you a penalty.

We have the right to remove any records, If we do we will:

• give you a receipt
• keep the records secure
• return them to you as soon as we can

If you need them back sooner, we’ll make copies and give these to you.

Asking other people for information

Sometimes we may need to ask other people for information about you. If we do this, we will not reveal any more about you than is necessary to get the information we need. We’ll only ask for information relevant to excise goods or services.

Your principal rights and obligations

You have:

• the right to be represented — you can authorise anyone to act on your behalf
• an obligation to take reasonable care to get things right — if you have an adviser, you must still take reasonable care to make sure that any returns, documents or details they send us on your behalf are correct

The ‘HMRC Charter’ explains what you can expect from us and what we expect from you. For more information, go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘HMRC Charter’.

If you’ve deliberately done something wrong

We may carry out a criminal investigation with a view to prosecution if you’ve deliberately done something wrong, such as:

• given us information that you know is not true, whether verbally or in a document
• dishonestly misrepresented how much tax you owe, or claimed payments you are not entitled to

Managing serious defaulters

If you deliberately got your tax affairs wrong, and we find this during our check, we may monitor your tax affairs more closely. We have an enhanced monitoring programme called ‘Managing serious defaulters. For more information, read factsheet CC/FS14, ‘Managing serious defaulters’. Go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘CC/FS14’.

Publishing details of deliberate defaulters

We may publish your details if you deliberately got your tax affairs wrong, but we will not do this if we’ve given you the maximum penalty reduction. For more information, read factsheet CC/FS13, ‘Publishing details of deliberate defaulters’. Go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘CC/FS13’.

Compliance checks that this factsheet relates to

This factsheet relates to compliance checks for the following:

• Air Passenger Duty
• Alcoholic Liquor Duties
• Amusement Machine Licence Duty
• Bingo Duty
• Gaming Duty
• General Betting Duty
• Hydrocarbon Oil Duties
• Lottery Duty
• Machine Games Duty
• Plastic Packaging Tax (from 1st April 2022)
• Pool Betting Duty
• Remote Gaming Duty
• Soft Drinks Industry Levy
• Tobacco Products Duty

More information

If you’re not happy with our service

Please tell the person or office you’ve been dealing with. They’ll try to put things right. If you’re still not happy, they’ll tell you how to make a formal complaint.

This factsheet is one of a series. For the full list, go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘Compliance checks factsheets’.

Our privacy notice

Our privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from us when we ask for information or hold information about you. Go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘HMRC Privacy Notice’.