Every year HMRC receives duties of £10.5 billion from around 8,000 businesses involved in the alcohol sector. Though the illicit market still costs the taxpayers around £1.8 billion a year in uncollected taxes.
Currently there
are complex rules which vary for different categories of drinks produced, including beer, wine and spirits through to cider, with a growing number of businesses operating in more than one category. Unsurprisingly some of these businesses are also involved in importing and exporting alcohol under EU-wide duty suspension procedures, or are approved for the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (AWRS).
As part of the 2016 Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that there would be a consultation on the reform of procedures for the administration of alcohol duty, as part of HMRC’s Alcohol Strategy. The aim is ultimately for business taxpayers in the alcohol sector to submit one set of information and use a single process to register, account for and pay the alcohol duty they owe.
Through the consultation HMRC is seeking opinion on the following areas:
- changes to registration requirements
- alignment of return and payment dates
- the current position for excise duty deferment including guarantees
They are keen to hear from those who currently produce, process or store alcohol subject to excise duty, those who are looking to do so in the future and representative bodies.
This consultation will inform the development of proposals and will be followed by a further consultation later in 2017 which will seek views on detailed proposals for reform. To find out more about the consultation including how to have your say visit the .Gov.uk website. The deadline for comments is 26 April 2017
