HMAG150501 - Excise duty points: excise goods unlawfully removed from a warehouse in Great Britain
Source: gov.uk (2025-05-30)


The relevant provisions are contained in The Excise Goods (Holding, Movement and Duty Point) Regulations 2010 (HMDP).

This section applies when there is a failure by the authorised warehousekeeper to consign excise goods under duty-suspension arrangements to a legitimate destination (as specified in regulation 37(1)(a)) and/or a failure to comply with the movement conditions (as specified in regulation 39(1). This breach is commonly known as an 'unlawful' or 'illegal' removal.

Goods dispatched from a warehouse in Great Britain (under duty-suspension arrangements) can only be consigned to:
- a tax warehouse approved to receive excise goods of that class or description in the United Kingdom; and
- a place where they will leave the territory of United Kingdom.
Excise goods may not be moved under duty-suspension arrangements unless:
- there is a movement guarantee in place (where appropriate), provided by someone with an approved connection with the goods, and
- the procedures in Part 8 (movement of goods wholly within the United Kingdom) and Part 9 (simplified procedures for movements wholly within the United Kingdom) are complied with.
Where it later transpires that the movement guarantee recorded on EMCS or Fallback document for a particular duty suspended movement was not valid, this is also considered to be an unlawful removal from the warehouse. For example, if it is subsequently found that the person providing the movement guarantee was not eligible to provide a guarantee (for example they were not one of the person/s eligible to provide a guarantee) or where that person is able to demonstrate that they did not give their permission for their guarantee to be used for that movement.

This section also applies in cases where the goods being removed are subject to a relief from excise duty but the warehousekeeper fails to comply with a condition of the release. For example, if excise goods are removed under the ships stores procedure but the warehousekeeper fails to comply with the movement condition under that procedure (the goods are removed without a C945).

Where there is an unlawful removal of excise goods from a warehouse, there is a release for consumption under regulations 6(1)(a) and 7(1)(a), with an excise duty point arising under regulation 5.

Excise duty point

Where there is a release for consumption under regulation 6(1)(a) and 7(1)(a), an excise duty point arises under regulation 5. The excise duty point is the time when the goods leave the duty-suspension arrangement. In most cases this will be the time when the goods are unlawfully removed from the warehouse.

Person/s liable to pay the duty

The person/s liable to pay the duty when excise goods are released for consumption under regulation 6(1)(a) and 7(1)(a) are shown in regulation 8.

Under regulation 8(1) the person liable to pay the duty is the authorised warehousekeeper or any other person releasing the excise goods or on whose behalf the excise goods are released from the duty-suspension arrangement. Where there is an irregular departure from a warehouse following a contravention of the provisions in regulation 7(1)(a)(i) and (ii) the person liable would be the authorised warehousekeeper. In other words, the goods were not consigned to someone authorised to receive them or a fundamental movement condition has not been met.

Under regulation 8(2), any person who was involved in the irregular departure of those goods from the warehouse is jointly and severally liable to pay the duty. For example, if the authorised warehousekeeper has employed a management company to undertake certain duties on his behalf, including control over the release of the goods, then the management company could be jointly and severally liable for the duty.