HMAG70300 - Importing Excise Goods: Declaring excise goods to a customs and excise procedure

Excise goods imported into GB (from any country outside the UK) are subject to customs control and must be declared to a specific customs and excise procedure.

This consists of three broad options:

  • Free circulation and home use (‘released for consumption’)

Customs duty, import VAT and excise duty is paid via the customs declaration and, as such, the goods are UK duty paid and available for general use in the UK.

  • Customs special procedures (a customs suspensive procedure or arrangement as defined in regulation 3(1) of the HMDP Regulations 2010)

Customs duty, import VAT and excise duty are suspended while the goods remain subject to a customs special procedure.

  • Free circulation and excise duty suspension

Customs duty is paid via the customs declaration but excise duty is suspended whilst the goods remain subject to excise duty suspension arrangements.

The importer (or their agent) must declare which customs and excise procedure they intend to use on the customs declaration via:

  • the Customs Procedure Code (CPC) on CHIEF (Box 37)

or

Common procedure codes used

Procedure codes starting with the following codes are commonly used for excise goods:

Procedure Code Description Excise Duty Status
40 Home use an free circulation (Released for consumption) Excise duty to be paid
07 Excise Warehousing Excise duty suspended (Excise suspension)
71 Customs Warehousing Excise duty suspended (Customs suspension)
51 Inward Processing Excise duty suspended (Customs suspension)

Calculation of excise duties on a customs declaration

CHIEF and CDS will automatically calculate the excise duty payable when goods are declared to home use and free circulation.

The excise duty rate is determined by the Tax Type declared in Box 47(a) on CHIEF or DE 4/3 on CDS.

CHIEF Tax Types

CDS Tax Types

Depending on the commodity tax base, CHIEF and CDS will use either the supplementary units (Box 41 on CHIEF or DE 6/2 on CDS), the net weight (Box 38 on CHIEF or DE 6/1 on CDS) or, for cigarettes, the retail price (Box 47(b) on CHIEF (when ‘VRP’ code entered in the rate column) or DE 4/4 on CDS).

Temporary storage

When goods (including excise goods) first arrive in GB, they have the status of being in Temporary Storage. Whilst goods are subject to Temporary Storage they are in a ‘customs suspensive procedure or arrangement’ (as defined in HMDP regulation 3(1)) and, therefore, an excise duty point cannot occur. Goods can remain in Temporary Storage for 90 days after which time the National Clearance Hub will refer the goods to Border Force for action.

Because of the Dansk ruling, an excise duty point cannot occur unless the goods are physically removed from beyond the first customs office.

Further guidance can be found in Temporary Storage.

Excise duty suspension

Where goods are declared to free circulation and excise duty suspension on importation, the excise duty suspended movement from the place of importation to an appropriately approved GB excise warehouse (or other allowable destination) must normally be started by a Registered Consignor, with the movement recorded on the Excise Movement Control System (EMCS).

There are certain circumstances where the registered consignor procedure does not apply. Further information on excise duty suspended movements within GB can be found in Excise Notice 197.

Excise duty relief

Goods imported to ‘Free Circulation and Home Use’ may also benefit from an excise duty relief that is available upon importation (e.g. Diplomatic Privilege). Whilst an excise duty point does occur, the excise duty is relieved and is therefore not payable if the importer and goods comply with the conditions of relief. Reference must be made to the customs procedure code on the customs declaration to see if a relief is being claimed.

Further information on excise duty reliefs can be found here: UK Trade Tariff: excise duties, reliefs, drawbacks and allowances