HCOS4325 - Post detection audit and assessment: periods of assessment

You should attempt to establish when the misuse started. This may be apparent from the records or may have been established during the interview. Look in the records for evidence of when purchases of rebated oil began or purchases of unrebated diesel decreased or stopped. If records are not available, RIS or a local Registered Dealer in Controlled Oil (RDCO) should be able to provide information on supplies of rebated oil to the offender.

Assessments of excise duty can be made for a period of up to four years (see HCOS4350).

The time limit can be extended to twenty years where a person’s conduct involves deliberate behaviour giving rise to a penalty, failure to notify or wrongdoing

From 1 April 2011 you can make an assessment up to 20 years from the end of the prescribed accounting period or the date of liability giving rise to a penalty. You can only do this in limited circumstances. Briefly, this is where excise duty has been lost due because

• of deliberate behaviour, or
• the person has taken part in a transaction knowing that it was part of arrangements intended to bring about a loss of duty of excise, or
• the person failed to comply with a notification obligation (see the table to paragraph 1 of schedule 41 Finance Act 2008).

For more information see CH53600.