HMAG80900 - Exporting excise goods: Excise duty points and liability to pay the excise duty

Where an irregularity occurs or is deemed to occur during a movement of excise duty suspended goods for export, the excise duty suspended movement ends and the excise duty is payable at that time. This applies even if a Report of Export has been generated and the eAD is closed on EMCS.

You may also need to consider whether there has been a customs irregularity. This may require the assistance of someone with experience in customs matters in order to determine whether further action is required in relation to any customs sanctions.

The following table provides guidance on the relevant excise duty point and person/s liable to pay the excise duty in certain scenarios. This is intended as a guide only, as each case must be considered on the facts that are presented.

Scenario	Excise duty point under HMDP	Person(s) liable
Excise duty suspended goods are dispatched from a warehouse (or place of import) for export without an eAD (or fallback document) or with an invalid eAD (or fallback document)	Reg 5 in conjunction with reg 6(1)(a) & 7(1)(a) or reg 19(6)(a)	See reg 8(1) & 8(2) See reg 19(7)(a) & 19(8)
Excise duty suspended goods are dispatched for export by a warehousekeeper (authorised for CSE) without a customs export declaration	Reg 5 in conjunction with reg 6(1)(a) & 7(1)(a)	See reg 8(1) & 8(2)
Excise duty suspended goods are dispatched from a warehouse (or place of import) for export with a valid eAD (or fallback document) but the eAD remains open on EMCS after 4 months	Reg 5 in conjunction with reg 6(1)(a) & 7(1)(h) [the timing of the irregularity is defined by reg 81(2)]	See reg 9(1) & 9(2)
Excise duty suspended goods did not leave the UK for export despite a Report of Export being generated and eAD closing on EMCS	Reg 5 in conjunction with reg 6(1)(a) & 7(1)(h) [the timing of the irregularity is defined by reg 80(2)]	See reg 9(1) & 9(2)

Case study:

A pallet of excise duty suspended beer is consigned to France by an excise warehousekeeper using  the standard export procedure. The warehousekeeper recorded the consignment on EMCS. In this case, the movement guarantee was provided by the owner of the goods.

The excise warehousekeeper informed the exporter of the ARC which was recorded on the customs export declaration.

Following submission of the departure message on CDS/CHIEF, a report of export was automatically generated and the eAD was closed on EMCS.

It was subsequently discovered that the consignment of beer was swapped during the excise duty suspended movement. Despite the eAD being closed on EMCS, the evidence strongly suggests that the beer did not leave the UK for export.

In this case, we consider that an irregularity occurred during the excise duty suspended movement (HMDP reg 80(2) refers) and an excise duty point arose under regulation 5, in conjunction with regulation 6(1)(a) and 7(1)(h). The person liable to pay the duty in this scenario is the person who provided the movement guarantee (reg 9(1) refers), which in this case is the owner of the goods. Anyone else involved in the irregularity is jointly and severally liable under regulation 9(2).