Section 5 — returns and payments
Information on how and when to submit your Alcohol Duty return and pay Alcohol Duty including exemptions.
The manage your Alcohol Duty online service is used to declare your liability for Alcohol Duty and the movement of alcoholic product each month.
All approved alcoholic product producers (unless you are exempt) must submit an Alcohol Duty return online by the 15th day of the month and pay duty by the 25th day of the month after the end of each accounting period, which will be a calendar month. You must account for all alcoholic products that have passed a duty point in the previous month. For example, all products released from duty suspense between 1 April and 30 April must be included in the return submitted by 15 May and duty must be paid by 25 May.
If your duty liability for a return period is nil or if you have not released any alcoholic products for consumption in a return period, you must still submit an Alcohol Duty return to confirm this.
If you have a multi-site operation, irrespective of how many approved premises you own, you should combine the duty liability for each site and submit one duty return. You should still maintain an individual product duty summary for each site for your records.
One return should be submitted for all of the alcoholic products that have been released from duty suspense by you across all your approved premises in this period. If you release goods via an approved excise warehouse, duty should be accounted for via Alcohol and Tobacco Warehousing Declarations (read 5.3 Alcoholic product producers that also have an excise warehouse approval) alongside submitting a nil Alcohol Duty return.
For further information about the Alcohol Duty return, read submit your monthly Alcohol Duty return.
If you produce cider products only and you produced 5 hectolitres or less of alcohol, in the previous year and have estimated that you will produce 5 hectolitres or less of alcohol in the current year, across all your premises, you are not required to submit a return. You should consider your production levels annually and whether this continues to apply to you.
Under the alcoholic products producer approval (APPA) you can be authorised to produce, hold and move alcoholic products in duty suspension — read section 4 — approvals for further information. This means there is no longer a requirement for alcoholic product producers to operate an excise warehouse, but they may wish to do so.
In addition to your alcoholic products producer approval (APPA), if you hold your alcoholic products in an excise warehouse and pay excise duty using the Alcohol and Tobacco Warehousing Declarations online service, you will still be required to submit an Alcohol Duty return via the manage your Alcohol Duty service by the 15th of the month, including a nil duty return.
If you are not an alcoholic products producer but are releasing alcoholic products from your excise warehouse you should continue to use the Alcohol and Tobacco Warehousing Declarations online service or form W5 and form W5D.
If you fail to submit a return on time, you’ll be liable to penalties under section 9 of Finance Act 1994. You can also be liable to penalties if your monthly return is inaccurate and as a result you do not pay enough duty. You have the right to appeal if we impose such a penalty — (read disagree with a tax decision or penalty and section 28 — review and appeal procedures).
You may incur further penalties for each day that you fail to pay the duty.
We have the authority to estimate the duty which would have been due and to pursue the debt through the civil courts.
Once you’re approved and you have your APPA ID, your obligation to submit monthly returns and payments will apply. Following receipt of your approval and APPA ID you should enrol onto the Manage your Alcohol Duty service as soon as possible so you are ready to submit returns (including any ‘nil’ returns where you don’t have anything to declare in the period) and make payments. If you do not enrol and submit returns and payments you may be liable to penalties.
To access your account for the first time you will need to enrol using the get access to the managing Alcohol Duty online service.
All approved alcoholic products producers will have a 15 character alcoholic products producer approval (APPA) ID. To enrol you will need your APPA ID and one of these:
- your business postcode
- your Corporation Tax unique tax reference (UTR)
- your Self Assessment unique tax reference (UTR)
If you were approved to produce alcoholic products before 1 February 2025, you will have been migrated from a registration or license under the Alcoholic Liquor Duties Act 1979, to an APPA under section 82 of the Finance (No.2) Act 2023. Your APPA ID will have been communicated to you in your online service letter from HMRC in February 2025.
If you do not receive your online service letter by 25 February 2025, you should contact nru.alcohol@hmrc.gov.uk. In your email you should include:
- your business name
- registered business address
- postcode
- Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR)
If you applied for an alcoholic products producer approval (APPA) after 1 February 2025, your approval ID will be communicated to you in your approval letter. If you do not have your APPA ID, contact excise and gambling duties enquiries.
If you have logged on to your business tax account and cannot enrol onto the Manage your Alcohol Duty service, use the ‘is this page not working properly?’ link for support.
If you are unable to access your business tax account, contact excise and gambling duties enquiries.
If you consider that you are digitally excluded, you can apply for an exemption from using the managing your Alcohol Duty online service. You can apply if:
- it’s not practical for you to use software to keep digital records or submit them — this may be due to your age, disability, location or another reason
- you are a practising member of a religious society (or order) whose beliefs are incompatible with using electronic communications or keeping electronic records
You will need to set out how these circumstances apply to you by writing to:
HM Revenue and Customs
Excise Processing Team
BX9 1GL
United Kingdom
We’ll consider the information you send us and we’ll either tell you:
- that you’re exempt (we’ll let you know what you need to do next)
- why you’re not exempt
If you’re not exempt you’ll need to enrol onto the manage your Alcohol Duty online service.
If the reason for your exemption no longer applies you must tell HMRC within 3 months.
You should log into your business tax account to start your return. At the end of every accounting period, a task will appear for you on the online service to complete and submit your return by the 15th of the month.
To prepare for submitting your duty return via the new online service, you may need to consider changing how you keep records.
To send an Alcohol Duty return, you’ll need:
- your Government Gateway ID
- how many litres you’ve produced that have passed a duty point
- the volume of pure alcohol in the products you’ve produced
- your duty rate if claiming Small Producer Relief, if applicable
- the amount of product eligible for Draught Relief, if applicable
- the amount of spoilt product
The Alcohol Duty return is split into 4 sections.
Section 1 — Declare alcoholic products for duty
You will need to start your return by telling us if you need to declare alcoholic products for Alcohol Duty, inputting the relevant information for your approval. If you are approved to produce more than one category of alcoholic products, you will need to confirm which category you need to declare duty on. By confirming you do not need to declare Alcohol Duty for a category of alcoholic product you will submit a nil return for that category.
You then need to declare the Alcohol Duty including the volume produced, litres of pure alcohol and declare whether the alcoholic product is eligible for reliefs. The return service will then use your information to work out the tax type code of the product and the duty that is due.
You can report different alcoholic product types in a single return as long as you hold an alcoholic products producer approval (APPA). You are not required to report each entry by brand or by the stock keeping unit.
If you cannot see the correct categories of alcoholic products that you hold approval for on your return, contact nru.alcohol@hmrc.gov.uk.
Section 2 — Declare adjustments from previous returns
You should declare an adjustment to a previously submitted return if you have:
- under-declared alcohol on a previous return and have not paid enough duty
- over-declared alcohol on a previous return and have paid too much duty
- paid duty on alcohol which is now spoilt and not fit for consumption
- paid duty on alcohol which you have now exported
- paid duty on alcohol at the reduced rate (draught relief) and have now repackaged it so it is no longer eligible for the reduced rate
From 1 March 2025, the manage your Alcohol Duty online service will allow you to declare adjustments to Alcohol Duty returns submitted after August 2023. You will need to specify the adjustment you are seeking to make and input the duty you had under-declared, over-declared or are claiming relief on.
This is with the exception of spirits producers who will be unable to adjust the declarations submitted through the Alcohol and Tobacco Warehousing Declaration prior to 1 March 2025.
To make adjustments to Alcohol Duty returns submitted prior to August 2023, you will need to contact excise and gambling duties enquiries.
Exports of duty paid alcoholic product
Drawback is a relief that provides for the repayment of excise duty on goods that have not and will not be consumed in the UK.
If you are an approved producer and intend to claim drawback on the alcoholic products you export, you can offset the amount of duty drawback on your Alcohol Duty return rather than submit a drawback claim. The claim should be for completed movements only and supported by the necessary documentary evidence as required by Excise Notice 207: Excise duty drawback. All other types of drawback should be claimed via the requirements set out in Notice 207.
If you discover errors relating to earlier accounting periods
In section 2 of the Alcohol Duty return, you can make any adjustments to a previously submitted return if you have either:
- under-declared alcohol on a previous return and have not paid enough duty
- over-declared alcohol on a previous return and paid too much duty
If you discover under-declarations or over-declarations relating to previous accounting periods which total less than £1,000 duty, you must enter the amount in your duty return for the current accounting period. Details of the error must be recorded in your Alcohol Duty account.
If either the total under-declaration or total over-declaration (or both) is £1,000 duty or more, you must, in addition to make the adjustments outlined, provide further information on the online return explaining why the over-declaration or under-declaration has occurred. You also must send full details to excise and gambling duties enquiries. Large businesses with a Customer Compliance Manager should contact HMRC’s Large Business Directorate with full details.
Section 3 — Report duty suspended alcohol deliveries
In your Alcohol Duty return, you will need to tell us the total litres of finished product and litres of pure alcohol (lpa) in alcoholic products received by you in duty suspense from elsewhere and removed from your approved premises in duty suspense to other approved premises. This should not include movements between your own approved premises if you own a multi-site operation as these details should be kept in your business records instead.
You should only declare duty suspended deliveries relating to finished alcoholic products. For example, if you are compounding and rectifying to produce a finished alcoholic product and received neutral grain spirit in duty suspense, you should not declare the neutral grain spirit as a duty suspended delivery in your return.
Note, if you have received in more that you have dispatched, the net figure will be a negative value. The online return will accept this.
Your net total of duty suspended alcoholic products will not change your duty calculation.
If you intend to submit a nil duty return via the Manage your Alcohol Duty service and account for duty via ATWD then to avoid duplication, you can similarly submit a nil return for the duty suspended section of the return, and complete the W1.
Section 4 — check your answers and submit
You will be able to view all of the answers that you have submitted in the final section of the return. By submitting your return, you will be confirming that the information you have provided is correct and complete. This should be done by the proprietor, a partner, the Company Secretary or the Director of the company. If this is not possible, you can authorise someone to sign the return on your behalf.
5.7.1 Reporting third party alcoholic products in your duty return
Your approval may allow you to hold third party alcoholic products on your premises in duty suspense. If you release these goods on behalf of the third party you will be able to declare them on your return. You will see an option to declare duty for all alcoholic product types associated with your alcoholic products producer approval (APPA). In months where you do not have any duty to declare for a particular alcoholic product, you are able to easily submit a nil return for that or those products, and only report those products with duty to pay.
If you’re unable to see an option to pay duty against an alcoholic product type that you believe should be shown, contact nru.alcohol@hmrc.gov.uk.
Pre 1 August 2023 returns
To make an adjustment to a beer, cider, other fermented product or wine return submitted prior to 1 August 2023, you should contact excise and gambling duties enquiries. You should include the following information:
- customer name
- reference number
- affected period and affected value
- appropriate supporting evidence
We may request your account number, sort code and account holder name if repayment will be issued.
Post 1 August 2023 returns
All returns submitted through the manage your Alcohol Duty service will remain available for viewing for 3 years plus the current year.
You will be able to make an adjustment in your current return for a previous return for up to 3 years plus the current year. This includes the separate returns you sent after 1 August 2023.
Returns submitted through ATWD
Spirits producers will not be able to adjust the declarations submitted through the ATWD before 1 March 2025. They would submit another W5 as they currently do.
The Manage your Alcohol Duty service won’t show you any outstanding returns prior to and including February 2025. However, you still need to submit them, even if you don’t owe anything.
If you owe duty, you’ll still need to pay using your current method. Please make sure you use the correct 8 or 12-digit reference number when you pay. You can find this on your return for the relevant period.
If you produce spirits, you will have an additional section on the manage your Alcohol Duty online service every quarter where you need to report spirits production. The report spirits production section of the return, formerly the W21 quarterly distillery return, is now captured on the online service.
Whether you account and pay duty via the Manage your Alcohol Duty Service or hold an excise warehouse alongside your alcoholic products producer approval (APPA) and account and pay duty via ATWD, you will need to complete the reporting spirits production section via the Managing your Alcohol Duty service.
If you are digitally excluded as outlined in section 5.6, you can report spirits production via the offline returns form.
As part of reporting spirits production, on a quarterly basis, you are required to tell us:
- total spirits that you have made in this period
- Scotch Whisky you made in this period
- Irish Whiskey you made in this period
The answers that you provide will not impact your duty calculation.
Compounders and rectifiers obligations for reporting spirits production
As compounding and rectifying is classified as production and requires an approval to produce spirits, compounders and rectifiers will have a quarterly obligation to complete the reporting spirits production section of the return. If you compound or rectify you will need to be submit a nil return for this section as you do not need to tell us about any alcoholic products produced from base alcohol made elsewhere.
You can avoid a penalty by checking that you’ve given complete and accurate information in your duty return. You can be liable to a penalty if your return is inaccurate and, as a result, you do not pay enough duty or if you do not notify us that a duty assessment we’ve sent you is too low.
If you’re aware you’ve made a mistake on your return, you must notify us as soon as possible. Depending on the circumstances, we may be able to reduce the penalty.
If you deliberately make a false duty return, you can face prosecution for the offence and incur a heavy penalty.
You must submit your return by the 15th of the month.
You must pay the duty due by the 25th of the month. Any payment you send us must have been cleared by this date. If the 25th of the month falls on a weekend or public holiday, we must have received your payment by the last working day before that date.
Payment can be made in parts so long as the full amount is received by the 25th day of the month.
HMRC accepts payment by various methods but recommends that you pay electronically using one of the following options:
- online by direct debit
- online through your bank account
- online by debit or corporate credit card
If you are paying by Bacs payment then you need to pay at least 3 working days before the payment due date.
From 1 February 2025, to pay by direct debit, you must set up a new direct debit for the duty you will be reporting through the manage your Alcohol Duty service.
You can find further information on payments at pay Alcohol Duty.
Formal duty deferment accounts are not required under alcoholic products producer approval (APPA) as producers automatically have a deferred period before payment in that returns are due on the 15th day of the month and payments on the 25th day of the month following production. For example, products released during March 2025 will be accounted for and duty paid by 25th April 2025.
As there are no formal deferment accounts available for use via the service, an alcoholic products producer cannot use a third party deferment account to pay duty.
From 1 February 2025 it is however possible to continue to pay duty via ATWD and W5(D) methods, providing the alcoholic products producer retains a formal excise warehouse approval. If choosing to pay via the warehousing route (to use a third party deferment account), the alcoholic products producer will still be required to submit the monthly alcohol duty return in the Manage your Alcohol Duty Service (as they are still must hold the alcoholic products producer approval (APPA)), but should do this monthly return as a nil return (so that there is no duplication).
If you fail to pay the duty by the due date, you will be liable to a civil penalty of 5% of the duty or £250 — whichever is greater. In addition, further penalties can be incurred for each day that you fail to pay the duty. Details of civil penalties are contained in Excise Notice 209: civil penalties — fixed, geared and daily. If you fail to pay on time, we can direct you to pay duty as soon as a duty point occurs rather than allowing you to defer payment of duty liability until the 15th of the following month.
At any time after the due date for payment, our officer can take action to take possession of all alcoholic products, materials and equipment used in production and connected with your trade as an alcoholic products producer, which are either owned by you or are in your possession and auction them to recover duty due plus pay any taking control of goods fees.
You have the right to appeal if we impose such a penalty, read disagree with a tax decision or penalty and section 28 — review and appeal procedures.
If you have a credit on your account, on the manage your Alcohol Duty online service, you will be able to request a repayment of the overpaid duty rather than off-setting it against your next duty return.
If you are digitally excluded or your repayment relates to a credit prior to January 2025, write to :
HM Revenue and Customs
Excise Processing Team
BX9 1GL
United Kingdom
In the letter you need to include:
- name of the business
- amount of repayment
- period to which the repayment relates to
- bank details of the business for repayment to be issued to
- reason how the overpayment occurred
- signed and dated by an authorised person
There is no facility to pay VAT within the Manage your Alcohol Duty service.
If you hold an alcoholic products producer approval (APPA) and use the Manage your Alcohol Duty service to report and pay Alcohol Duty, you will be able declare any applicable VAT on alcoholic products under duty suspension using the EX46.
If you use the Manage your Alcohol Duty service to submit nil returns and continue to declare and pay duty via ATWD, you can continue to declare any applicable VAT on the W5 and W5D.
For further information read section 27 – accounting for VAT.
If you have any queries or issues with the Manage your Alcohol Duty service, use the ‘get help with this page’ link throughout the service for support.
For general queries about returns and payments and this technical guide, contact excise and gambling duties enquiries.