HCOTEG143000 - Traders Accounts, Records and Returns: Budget changes

Introduction

Public Notice 179, paragraph 11.4 describes the procedures to be adopted in the event of a change in the effective rate of excise duty. The following paragraphs amplify the directions in the notice.

Delivery note procedure at duty-suspended warehouses and onward delivery

Public Notice 179, paragraph 7.14.2. makes it clear, that delivery notes are required to show the date of delivery. Provided you are satisfied that the delivery date clearly and correctly signifies the duty rate borne and the rebate rate obtained, no additional action by the trader regarding delivery notes is necessary. When this is not the case (e.g. on a day on which a rate-change occurs) the delivery note issued must bear a clear statement as to whether the oil was delivered pre- or post the rate change. Subsequent delivery notes for the same parcel must be similarly endorsed.

Procedures at Remote Marking Points (RMPs)

1. When oil is marked on receipt, the rate of rebate to be entered in Box 14 of Form HO9 can be worked out from the duty rate shown on the delivery note.
   
2. When oil is marked on transfer from un-marked to marked stocks, or is delivered under a marking waiver, it will be necessary for the trader to operate an exhaustion account to determine the appropriate rate of rebate. In such cases stock should be taken and then exhausted by deliveries un-marked (e.g. as DERV), unmarked under marking waiver, and to marked stock.

The trader should take stock at 18.00 hours on the day of the change and add subsequent receipts of pre-change rate oil (identified from the delivery note statement) to this stock. Receipt rather than delivery quantities must be used.

When deliveries are metered, all relevant meter totalisers must be read by the trader and the readings recorded.

For the purpose of the exhaustion account, storage losses may be taken into account. Where oil is stored, either separately or in the same tank, for more than one client, separate stock accounts should be operated for each client.

Forms HO9 must show the rate of rebate appropriate to the oil marked or delivered under a marking waiver, determined above. When a marking or delivery covers oils at different rebate rates separate Forms HO9 must be used for each rate.

Accounting at duty-suspended warehouses and Central Accounting Points (CAP)

Forms HO9 processed by the warehousekeeper or CAP in the accounting period of a rate change must be dealt with as indicated in Public Notice 179 paragraph 11.4.

When a Form HO9 is received claiming rebate at a pre-change rate in a period subsequent to that in which the change occurred, duty-suspended warehousekeepers must identify the quantity and rate as a separate item on the schedule of deliveries. They are not to account for such a marking by the method indicated in paragraph 10.13.3 of Public Notice 179.

The CAP should take credit by recording the quantity rebated and the rate of the rebate as deductions in the lower section of Form HO10, the tax type code for the product also being inserted.

When Forms HO9 are received at CAPs directly from RMPs, the above provisions must be adopted.

Notifications to traders

Officers responsible for premises likely to be affected by the above arrangements must ensure that the trader is aware of them.