Thousands of businesses will have recently received a letter from Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Damian Hinds 
urging them to apply for the new Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme.
Wholesalers that sell alcohol to other businesses have until March 31 to apply to register for the new HMRC scheme.
The scheme is designed to ensure alcohol supplied to retailers – the shops, pubs, restaurants and other outlets that sell to consumers – is legitimate and will ensure traders are not struggling against those trading illegally, who are responsible for a significant part of the £1.2bn a year in unpaid alcohol duty.
HMRC believes the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme will protect taxpayers from being undercut by the illegal traders dealing in illicit alcohol. Businesses that sells alcohol to other businesses are being urged to check now whether they need to apply and not to leave it too late.
The purpose behind the scheme is to drive criminals out of the supply chain and put money into the public purse.
HMRC will assess whether wholesalers are ‘fit and proper’. This involves considering factors like connections to convicted alcohol fraudsters, whether proper checks are done to protect the business from receiving illegal supplies and proper record-keeping.
Wholesalers failing to meet the ‘fit and proper’ test will not be able to trade in alcohol and face fines if they continue. Businesses will need to provide information such as types of customer, products sold, premises used and details of their main suppliers, when they apply.
Retailers will have to buy from approved wholesalers from April 2017. HMRC will publish details of approved wholesalers online.
Details about registering can be found here. If you run a wholesale business, whether for alcohol or other goods and would like advice relating to the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme or indeed any other aspect of tax which can affect your business, such as VAT do get in touch today.
