Excise Movement & Control System (EMCS) Newsletter - issue 8 December 2009

Welcome to the latest EMCS Newsletter

The aim of this newsletter is to provide you with an update about EMCS project developments. We will issue the newsletter bi-monthly.

Inside this issue:

  1. UK Delivery Timeline
  2. Registered Excise Dealers and Shippers (REDS) and Occasional Importers
  3. Registered Consignors Update
  4. SEED Update
  5. Trade Consultations Update

1. UK Delivery Timeline

We are currently working to the following timeline for the successful implementation of EMCS in the UK (we have included specific dates if known).

Date

Delivery

December 2009

UK Regulations final draft

February 2010

Updated Local Test Service (LTS) for Functional Stage 0 (FS0) released

February 2010

Registration and Enrolment for EMCS

1 April 2010

Implementation of EMCS Functional Stage 0 (FS0) Member States will be able to return an electronic Report of Receipt (RoR) to discharge a movement

1 January 2011

Implementation date of EMCS Functional Stage 1 (FS1) Member States will be able to send and receive messages electronically

31 December 2011

Implementation date of EMCS Functional Stage 2 (FS2) provides the whole EMCS functionality

2. Registered Excise Dealers and Shippers (REDS) and Occasional Importers

Who should read this?

You should read this if you are a Registered Excise Dealer and Shipper (REDS) or intend to import excise goods under suspension arrangements from another EU Member State on or after the 1 April 2010 using the Occasional Importer arrangements. It describes changes introduced by Council Directive 2008/118.

What is changing?

On the 1 April 2010 the REDS and Occasional Importer arrangements are being replaced by the Registered Consignee and Temporary Registered Consignee arrangements. In addition, we are introducing new arrangements for the receipt of goods in the UK which are duty paid in the Member State of dispatch.

As with the current REDS arrangements, both the Registered Consignee and Temporary Registered Consignee require prior approval from HMRC. Once approved, they may only receive goods dispatched from another Member State under duty suspension arrangements and may not hold or dispatch goods.

From 01 April 2010, you must be able to receive notification of goods intended for you and discharge those movements electronically using the EMCS. Transitional arrangements will be in place until 31 December 2010 to allow traders who are unable to send electronic notifications to continue to use the existing paper AAD system. These movements will continue to require a paper certificate of receipt (copy 3 AAD) to be completed and returned to the consignor following current procedures.

All businesses will need to Register and Enrol for EMCS via the Government Gateway. More information on the Registration & Enrolment (R&E) process is available.

Registered Consignee

The Registered Consignee arrangements are similar to the current REDS ones. Where goods are correctly consigned to a Registered Consignee, the prime liability for the duty will always lie with that Registered Consignee, who:

  • will be permitted to import excise goods on behalf of others; and
  • must account for the duty under deferment arrangements, and may (where approval is granted) declare the duty using a third party deferment account (the accounting period will be identical to the current REDS arrangements).

Registered Consignee Direct delivery arrangements

Goods should normally be delivered to the Registered Consignee's registered address. However, in exceptional cases, we will permit goods consigned to a Registered Consignee to be delivered directly to his customer/client’s address provided the registered consignee is approved for direct delivery.

Temporary Registered Consignee

Temporary Registered Consignee (TRC) arrangements will be similar to the current Occasional Importer ones. Goods may only be delivered to the registered address notified on the initial application. Receipts must be accounted for on a consignment by consignment basis. Before arranging the dispatch, the TRC must:

  • provide HMRC with advance information about the consignment;
  • complete and return a TRC Movement Request form and secure payment of the UK duty due on the goods with HMRC; and
  • provide the consignor with a Temporary Consignment Authorization Number which is a unique number allocated by HMRC for each consignment (once the movement request has been authorised).

Once the goods are received the TRC must provide a final accounting declaration to HMRC ensuring that any duty or VAT due is paid in full. This is in addition to the report of receipt/certificate of receipt to their supplier.

What happens next?

Between now and early 2010 we will be providing further details on both the Registered Consignee and Temporary Registered Consignee arrangements including how to apply for approval.

This information will be published on the EMCS pages of the HMRC internet and future newsletters.

3. Registered Consignors Update

The EMCS Newsletter issue 5 (June 2009), told you about a new excise trader type under EMCS for registered consignors.

When will this happen?

From 1st January 2011 registered consignors must be authorised by HMRC to continue moving goods from a place of importation in excise duty suspension to an excise warehouse or other registered premises.

What does this mean for me?

A registered consignor must access EMCS and submit an e-AD when satisfied that the goods have been released to free circulation (i.e. all customs formalities have been completed and any customs duties have been paid or accounted for) before despatching the goods to allowable destinations which are:

  • a tax warehouse in the UK or another Member State
  • a registered consignee in another Member State
  • a place of exit from the Community (either a direct export from the UK or an indirect export via another Member State)

For movements within the UK, this is achieved by declaring goods to the 07 series of Customs Procedure Codes (CPC) at Appendix E2 of Volume 3 of the Tariff on the Single Administrative Document (SAD) import entry via CHIEF.

Next Steps

Similar to other excise trader types (e.g. warehousekeepers, registered owners and duty representatives) we will require traders to apply for registered consignor approval. All applications will be subject to meeting our approval criteria. We intend to have a registered consignor approval application form available from 1 April 2010.

More information including how to apply for approval and movement guarantee requirements will be provided over the coming weeks.

If you have any queries on registered consignors you can e-mail the Holding and Movement team.

4. SEED Update

We are pleased to advise that the migration of SEED records is now successfully complete and all appropriate records are visible on SEED-on-EUROPA (Opens new window).

Again, we would like to thank all of you for your patience and understanding during what was a difficult transitional period.

We will continue to monitor the SEED system to ensure that the data remains up to date and coherent. We must also emphasise the importance of your participation in supporting this process by ensuring that any changes to your approval status are advised to our National Registration Unit (address below) in Glasgow as soon as they occur.

National Registration Unit (NRU)
HM Revenue & Customs
Portcullis House
21 India Street
Glasgow
G2 4PH

Tel: 0141 555 3495/3633/3505
Fax: 0141 555 3506
Email: National Registration Unit (NRU)

To ensure data integrity, we will be contacting you in early 2010 to confirm the details that we hold are correct. If any of the details are incorrect we will ask you to inform us either my email or post so that we can make the necessary changes.

5. Trade Consultations Update

EMCS Working Group & Sub Groups

Meetings with representatives from the alcohol, oils, tobacco and freight forwarders sectors continue, ensuring they are kept updated on EMCS project and policy developments.

We expect to publish information an all issues raised on the EMCS Latest News pages of the HMRC internet in early January 2010.

Technical Developers Group

HMRC Software Developers Support Team (SDST) met with Software Developers on 1 December.

We provided an outline of the recognition process that will be adopted for EMCS and delivered a demonstration of the Local Test Service (LTS).

This meeting provided developers with an opportunity to discuss and clarify all outstanding issues.

All information and presentations including the minutes of the meeting will be published.

If you have any feedback, suggestions or comments relating to this newsletter please forward them to us at EMCS.