Bulk goods

If you’ve been approved by HMRC to receive and store excise goods in bulk and we’ve not restricted your approval by imposing any conditions or restrictions, you can carry out the following operations on your goods:

• bottling

• cask rinsing, subject to the warehousing of the contaminated cleaning agent

• colouring

• denaturing — including vinegarisation

• disgorging from case to cask, case to vat

• filling

• filtering

• fining

• mixing of goods of different sorts

• priming of beer

• racking from cask to cask

• fortifying other fermented products

• fortifying wine

• mixing beer or wine with other fermented products to produce other fermented product

• production of beverages and foodstuff of low alcoholic strength qualifying for duty relief

• rectifying and compounding spirits

• rendering wine, or other fermented products sparkling — specifically, aerating or carbonating other fermented products

• reducing spirits

• stabilising and preserving

• sweetening

• vatting or blending and racking into casks or drums

You can also incorporate additives provided you comply with UK legislation (for example, Finance (No. 2) Act 2023 in respect of additives to cider) and the quantity used does not affect the Tariff rating of the goods.

Find more information about tariff classification in the Integrated Tariff of the UK.

For motor and heating fuel warehouses, refer to Motor and heating fuels general information and accounting for Excise Duty and VAT (Excise Notice 179).

For tobacco products, refer to Notice 476 Tobacco Products Duty.

Operations in excise warehouses distillers may have in addition to their production premises

The only allowable operations in excise warehouses distillers have are:

• bottling of spirits produced at the distillery of manufacture, subject to amendment of the warehouse approval

• reducing spirits with water

• filling casks or drums with spirits

• removing spirits in bulk to tanker or by authorised pipeline

• drawing off spirits from unsound casks or pumping directly from casks to a tanker

• emptying casks of spirits into vats for subsequent removal in bulk

• transferring spirits from cask to cask

Even though we do not class the transfer of spirits from one vat to another as an operation, you must record these details.

Goods already bottled and packaged

For goods already bottled, provided we’ve approved you to receive and store bottled excise goods and we’ve not restricted your approval by imposing conditions or restrictions, you can carry out the following operations:

• adjusting and repacking cased goods — including damaged cases, emptying bottles, dividing cased goods

• packing bottled goods from bin storage into cases

• re-labelling bottles

• re-marking or re-numbering packages, including repacked packages

If you wish to carry out an operation that’s not listed or if you’re in doubt that your action is an allowable operation, you must contact the Excise HelplineHMRC and give details of the proposed operation. There may then be an amendment to your approval.

You should treat imported excise goods the same way as UK-produced excise goods. Importers must make sure that they correctly declare the volume and strength of the goods.

Statements on labels

HMRC reserve the right to object to the use of labels, wrappers, cases or printed matter contained in cases bearing incorrect or misleading statements or words, for example:

• claiming an exclusively British origin for spirits which are shown by the records to be imported spirits, or vice versa

• claiming an exclusively British or an exclusively foreign origin for spirits which are shown by the records to be a mixture of British and imported spirits

• implying, directly or indirectly, that the trader concerned is an approved producer of alcoholic products, when they do not hold an alcoholic product producer approval (APPA)

• indicating that the spirits are ‘Scotch whisky’ or ‘Irish whiskey’ when the legal requirements relating to these descriptions are not fulfilled

If you print labels in a foreign language, you must provide an English translation on request.

We may ask you to provide written clearance from a Trading Standards Officer for the use of any label.

You can find further information about food labelling regulations for alcoholic drinks from the Food Standards Agency.

Product strength and volume

To work out the strength and volume of all alcoholic products for duty and stock control purposes, you must have a system in place that meets the following UK legal requirements:

• section 45 of the Finance (No.2) Act 2023
• regulation 3 of the Alcoholic Products (Excise Duty) Regulations 2023

You can use any recognised method to determine alcoholic strength provided the results are accurate and the method is used consistently. The method used to settle any dispute is referred to in Schedule 2 of the Spirit Alcoholic Products (Excise Duty) Regulations 2023.

You must record alcoholic strength and volume during an operation as accurately as possible, ensuring that you adjust for any obscuration caused by sweetening, colouring or other ingredients.

During an operation to bottle duty-suspended products in warehouse, you must give prior notice of the intended strength and quantity per case (for example, 12 × 40% × 70 centilitres (cl) = 3.36 litres of alcohol). This should be reflected by the strength and quantity shown on bottle labels or other documents.

Keeping records during operations

You should take and record sufficient measurements, during each operation morning and afternoon, of the liquid content and strength with:

• normally, 2 five-bottle sample measurements for each bottle size

• one strength test (spirits only)

• strength tests of wine

Make sure that, if you use measuring container bottles, the templates are calibrated at intervals of:

• 1 millilitre (ml) (or equivalent in millimetres (mm)) for bottles of less than 35cl

• 2ml (or equivalent in mm) for bottles of 35cl to one litre, inclusive

• 3ml (or equivalent in mm) for bottles over one litre

They also need to be graduated for the temperature band in which the goods are filled (for spirits, the templates may measure the liquid quantity which, on adjustment for strength, gives the equivalent of 1ml, 2ml or 3ml in litres of alcohol).

You must keep a sample of each bottle label used and any other document which specifies the quantity and strength of the goods.

Also, you must maintain and keep records of the measurements taken for 6 years. This will show the trends in bottling performance and the action taken to make sure consistent accuracy in filling.

If the records kept for trading standards officers are inadequate, too complex or provide only uncharted individual measurements, record our measurements on a chart. These are the minimum record requirements of HMRC.

Subject to the these requirements, you may adopt any of the accepted methods of measuring and recording set out in the Packaged goods: weights and measures regulations. This sets out the number of samples you should take for measurement of volume.

You should take a similar number for measurement of strength. You must:

• calculate average strength and volume for each separate operation

• treat each change of container size or strength fill within an operation separately for the purpose of taking samples

When recording strength, you should disregard figures beyond the first decimal place. For example, if the average strength resulting from an operation, or separate fills within it, is between 40.01% and 40.09%, record the strength as 40.0%.

You must be able to demonstrate that when measuring strength and volume you make a continuing effort to achieve the strength and volume indicated on bottles or other containers. You should make adjustments, where possible during the operation, recording the actual strength found during testing.

Normally, we’ll accept the labelled strength and volume as the basis of duty calculations if you can show that you’re controlling operations so that you:

• are not aiming to achieve a higher strength than that shown on the label

• take corrective action immediately if the actual strength exceeds the label strength

We may ask you to pay any additional duty if we find you’ve packaged goods at strengths or volumes exceeding those on the labels. Additionally, duty will be due when:

• there is evidence that you have neglected your responsibilities — for example, continuing to perform operations in ways that create difficulties

• you’ve failed to take remedial action after discovering problems or errors

• we find evidence that you’ve gained a revenue or commercial advantage

You must write to HMRC to tell us if you’ve underpaid duty following any operation. We’ll then tell you what you must do.

Find out about additional records you need to keep for and excise warehouse.

Report cash payments for alcohol sales

Owners and duty representatives need to report cash sales as set out in the guidance Responsibilities of excise warehousekeepers, owners of goods and duty representatives.