Excise Duties

Common requirements apply throughout the European Union (EU) to certain excise products subject to excise duties.

These requirements cover, for example:

• the excise products on which EU Member States must charge excise duties
• common rules on producing, processing and storing excise products
• authorisation by your Revenue office
• licensing

Excise products subject to these common requirements are:

• alcohol products
• tobacco products
• energy products used for heating and transport, as well as electricity

Excise duties must be paid on them when they are produced or traded. The EU sets the minimum amount of excise duties payable for each of the products and EU countries may impose other taxes as well.

There are different requirements depending on whether the excise duty:

• has already been paid (referred to as 'duty paid'), or
• has not been paid until the products are released for consumption (referred to as 'duty suspended')

EU rules explain which products are subject to excise duties and how the duties must be applied to them.

EU law also stipulates the minimum excise duty rates to be applied, although each EU country can set their tax rates higher if they choose. The tax payable is usually based on quantity such as per kilogram, hectolitre (hl) or degree alcohol.

When you need to pay excise duties

There is an important difference between the moment a product becomes subject to excise duty and the moment when this duty has to be paid. Most excise goods become subject to excise duty as soon as they are produced, or imported into the EU. This duty can be suspended, meaning it doesn't have to be paid until the product is released for consumption.

If excise products are destroyed or lost due to unforeseeable reasons or natural disasters before they are released for consumption, no excise duties have to be paid.

Excise duties may be paid by:

• the person or business who is the authorised warehouse-keeper of the place where excise products are produced, processed, stored, dispatched or received
• the sender, recipient, transporter or 3rd party providing a movement guarantee - who caused the goods to leave the duty-suspension arrangement
• the person importing the goods, if they are imported without being put under the duty-suspension arrangement

Duty paid

Specific requirements apply, where you conduct business in sourcing duty paid excise products in other European Union (EU) Member States. Further information is available in Public Notice 1880.

Duty suspended

If you intend to conduct business in duty suspended excise products, you require Revenue authorisation as a tax warehousekeeper. Further information is available in Public Notice 1890.

Revenue must also approve the premises from which you wish to trade in duty suspended excise products.

Read more about the approval of premises by Revenue.

Authorisation as a registered consignor

A registered consignor is authorised by Revenue to dispatch duty suspended excise products on importation in the course of their business.

Further information is available in the Movement of Excisable Products Manual.

Authorisation as a registered consignee

A registered consignee may recieve duty suspended excise products from another EU Member State in the course of Business. If you intend to recieve consignments of duty suspended excise priducts, you must be authorised by Revenue as a registered consignee.

You must account for the excise duties with your Revenue office before the excise products are dispatched to you. Further information is available about the Consignment of Excisable Products from EU Member States for Commercial Purposes.

Licensing

You must hold a licence if you wish to trade in certain duty paid or duty suspended excise products. Further guidance is available in excise licencing.

Excise duty becomes due when excise products are released for consumption in Ireland. This happens when:

• the excise products leave a Revenue approved tax warehouse, or
• when they are brought in from another country and are released for consumption

Separate payment arrangements apply to Betting Duty, Air Travel Tax and excise duties on licences.

Deferral

Revenue may allow you to defer paying the excise duty due subject to certain conditions. See the EEDS Manual and the AEP payment methods section for more information.

Deadlines for paying excise duties and filing returns

Separate deadlines for paying excise duties and filing returns apply to each specific excise duty.

If you pay your excise duty late, interest is due at a rate of 0.0274% for each:

• day, or
• part of a day

In certain cases where you overpay excise duties, you may be entitled to a repayment.

You must outline the circumstances leading to the overpayment in writing. You should support your claim with appropriate evidence.

To make a claim please provide your name, address and Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) or Tax Reference Number to your Revenue office.

Your revenue office will require the following types of evidence to consider your claim, depending on the circumstances of the overpayment. The evidence you should provide will usually include:

• a full description of the products
• the quantity of each type of product to which the claim refers
• the amount of excise duty paid on the products, if known
• the date, if known, when that excise duty was paid

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• a narrative account of the circumstances that in your opinion gives rise to the overpayment for which you are claiming a refund