SPE15315 - Usual Forms of Handling (UFH), other processing and records: bottling of wine
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Warehouse keepers who imported bulk wine prior to 30 April 2016 may wish to carry out bottling (as a UFH) and opt to calculate the duty and import VAT due based on the rules of assessment at SPE15320. The advantage of this is that the duty rate for bulk wine is less than that for the bottled product. The warehouse keeper should enter details of the volume of goods that are entered to the bottling process in their stock records (any shortages between the received volume and the declaration for entry to customs warehousing being corrected by an amendment of the entry, see Special Procedures generic guidance on amendment, invalidation and annulment of a C88 SAD declaration).
Although using the rules of assessment described in SPE15310 has advantages for the trader they should be advised to consider this option carefully to ensure that it is the most appropriate method for their commercial activities. You should also ensure that the UFH, in this case bottling, does not predominate over the storage of the goods
Note: Northern Ireland (NI) customs authorisations will continue to fall within the provisions of the Union Customs Code (UCC), as retained by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and CEMA 1979.