Section 23 — co-storage and failed delivery of duty paid goods
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-18)

Guidance about failed deliveries of duty paid goods and co-storage of duty paid and duty suspended alcoholic product on approved premises.

23.1 Duty suspension

Duty paid alcoholic products cannot be returned to duty suspension. You can claim a refund of the excise duty paid on any spoilt alcoholic product, as set out in section 15 — duty paid spoilt alcoholic product (https://draft-origin.publishing.service.gov.uk/guidance/alcoholic-products-technical-guide/section-15-duty-paid-spoilt-alcoholic-product).

23.2 Failed delivery of duty paid alcoholic product

If duty paid alcoholic product is return to your approved premises because a customer is unwilling or unable to accept a delivery or an erroneous delivery has been made, the alcoholic product must be separately identified from duty suspended stock in your records. As duty will have been accounted for on the alcoholic product when it was initially dispatched, your records will not need adjusting either when the alcoholic product is returned or when it is subsequently redelivered.

23.3 Impact on your accounting system due to a failed delivery

Your account system may not distinguish between alcoholic product held in duty suspension and duty paid alcoholic product returned to approved premises because of a failed delivery. If you’re unable to modify your accounting system to overcome the problem, you can adopt the following procedure:
- set up a failed delivery account — enter the following information into the account for each failed delivery returned to your approved premises
- the date the alcoholic product was returned and the reason
- sufficient information to identify the original dispatch of the alcoholic product in your records
- the amount of duty involved
When alcoholic product returned because of failed deliveries is subsequently redelivered, charge it with duty in the normal way.

When all alcoholic product returned on a particular day because of failed deliveries has then been redelivered, credit yourself with the duty in the failed delivery account for the day of return (this credit will offset the second duty charge). For example, if there were 3 failed deliveries during the accounting period and the total duty charge was £1,200.50, you would credit yourself with that sum from the failed delivery account at the end of the accounting period provided all the alcoholic product had been redelivered and duty recharged.

This procedure can be used only for genuine failed deliveries if your accounting system cannot distinguish between them and alcoholic product held in duty suspension.

In cases of doubt or difficulty, contact HMRC (https://www.gov.uk/find-hmrc-contacts/excise-warehousing-excise-goods-movements-and-alcohol-duties-enquiries).

23.4 Duty rate change

If there is a duty rate change between the date alcoholic products are returned to your approved premises because of failed deliveries and the date they are re-delivered, you must make an appropriate adjustment of the duty when you credit yourself from the failed delivery account.

If, in the example above, the duty rate increased by 6% before the alcoholic product was redelivered, you would increase the £1,200.50 by 6% (£72.03) and credit yourself with £1,272.53 once you had redelivered and charged duty at the new increased rate.

23.5 Co-storage of duty paid and duty suspended alcoholic products

Alcoholic product could either be received duty paid or have duty paid on them while in your approved premises. Duty paid alcoholic product cannot revert to duty suspended status, and duty suspended alcoholic product cannot be shown as duty paid without prior payment of duty.

Alcoholic products on which any duty has been paid, can, subject to certain conditions, be co-stored with duty suspended alcoholic product in your approved premises. The conditions are that the change of status of any alcoholic products from duty suspended to duty paid must be recorded and the products clearly identified in your records.

No physical segregation of duty suspended and duty paid alcoholic products is necessary.