The Excise Goods (Holding, Movement, Warehousing and REDS) Regulations 1992

Movement conditions

10.—(1) Save as the Commissioners may otherwise allow or require and except for movements between excise warehouses which the Commissioners may specify in a notice, a consignment of excise goods may not be moved under duty suspension arrangements unless—

(a) the duty chargeable on the excise goods, and any charge described in paragraph (4) below, is secured as provided for in that paragraph;

(b) the excise goods are accompanied by an appropriate document issued by the consignor;

(c) the excise goods are transported in containers or packages;

(d) the consignment is retained intact until one hour or such lesser period as the Commissioners may allow after the time of arrival of the excise goods at their destination when any approved seal (referred to in subparagraph (e) below) may be broken or removed; and

(e) except as the Commissioners may allow, the containers or the packages referred to in subparagraph (c) above are secured by a seal, the form of which has been approved by the Commissioners.

(2) Except as the Commissioners otherwise allow, imported Community excise goods which are subject to a duty of excise that has not been paid and which are not consigned to a tax warehouse shall upon their importation be consigned to a REDS.

(3) In a UK distance selling arrangement the UK vendor shall—

(a) before the excise products are consigned to the address in another member State, enter into a guarantee (containing such terms and particulars as that member State may specify) for the payment of the other member State’s charge;

(b) at or before the importation of the excise products into the other member State, pay or arrange the payment of the other member State’s charge (and that obligation to pay or of arranging the payment shall be considered, for the purpose of this paragraph, to be discharged only if that payment is made);

(c) keep and preserve a record of each UK distance selling arrangement.

(4) The duty mentioned in subparagraph (a) of paragraph (1) above shall be secured by an approved guarantee or bond; and any charge of a similar nature to duty that may arise in another member State in respect of those excise goods, when consigned to any of the other member States, shall also be secured by such a guarantee or bond.

(5) Where excise goods which are not in duty suspension are supplied, other than by way of UK distance selling arrangements, to a relevant person and those goods are to be removed to another member State, the consignor prior to the movement of the goods, shall ensure—

(a) that the tax authorities in the member State of destination have been informed of the pending importation; and

(b) that, before those goods are imported into that other member State, the latter’s charge in respect of those goods has been paid or arrangements have been made for its payment.

(6) In paragraph (5) above “relevant person” means any person acquiring, other than for private purposes, excise goods that are not in duty suspension, and “charge” means the equivalent of a duty which will be charged by the law of the other member State.