If your company produces or trades excise goods (alcohol, alcoholic drinks, energy products, electricity, tobacco products), you must be aware of the rules on payment of excise duties applicable. Different EU countries may impose other taxes on these products, as well.
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Basic Rules

​Check the national implementation:: Choose country

Note: The EU rules on excise duties do not apply in the following regions of the EU:
Regions

In some cases, excise duties paid are based on those from another country:

• Monaco businesses must pay French excise rates.
• San Marino businesses must pay Italian excise rates.
• United Kingdom Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia must pay Cypriot excise rates.
• The Isle of Man must pay UK excise rates.

Products affected

​1. Alcohol/Alcoholic drinks

• Beer or mixtures of beer with non alcoholic drinks.
• Wine.
• Other fermented drinks such as cider.
• Intermediate products such as sherry or port.
• Ethyl alcohol — except when it used to manufacture other products not intended for human consumption (if used for heating or propulsion it may be classified as an energy product).
• Spirits.

Reduced rates and exemptions

2. Energy products & electricity
These are taxed when used as:

• motor fuel;
• fuel for heating.

Energy products used as raw materials or for the purposes of chemical reduction, or in electrolytic and metallurgical processes are out of the scope of the Directive, which means that the Member States may or may not decide to levy a tax on such use.

The main products that are taxed are:

• mineral oils;
• solid fuels: coal, coke, lignite;
• natural gas;
• electricity;
• alcohols, if they are intended for use as heating fuel or motor fuel;
• animal or vegetable oils, if they are intended for use as heating fuel or motor fuel.

Reduced rates and exemptions

3. Tobacco products
The EU legislation on excise duties for manufactured tobacco defines the following excisable categories:

• Cigarettes.
• Cigars.
• Cigarillos.
• Smoking tobacco (such as fine cut rolling tobacco).

The EU legislation lays down the principles of taxation and sets the minimum rates to be applied.
View the full list of excise duty rates applicable in the EU on tobacco products.
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 Other exemptions

Who pays and when

When are excise duties payable?

There is an important difference between the time a product becomes subject to excise duty and the time 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.
But this duty can in effect be suspended and does not have to be paid until the product is "released for consumption". This means the moment when products are no longer under duty suspension arrangements. Note that to be able to produce store and move excise goods without paying excise (under excise duty suspension) requires a special authorisation from the country in question.

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.

Who pays excise duty?

Excise duty is 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;
• any other person - sender, recipient, transporter, 3rd party providing a movement guarantee, etc. - who caused the goods to leave the duty-suspension arrangement;
• the person declaring the import, if the goods are imported and not immediately put under the duty-suspension arrangement.

Transporting goods to different EU countries without paying duties

To enable you — as a seller — to transport goods, but maintain the suspension of excise duty (the duty will be paid by the buyer in the country of destination according to that country's rates) you must adhere to the following rules.

Rule 1 - Guarantee against transport risks
Rule 2 - Electronic administrative document (e-AD)
Rule 3 - receiving the goods

Check a business partner's excise number

If you want to find out whether a business partner's excise authorisation number is valid or not, you can use the SEED excise authorisation system.
If your partner has a valid number, SEED will show you a list of products they are authorised to trade.

Selling to private customers

If you sell excise goods directly to private customers and the place of sale is your country, you'll have to charge excise duties according to the rates valid in your country.
There are no limits on what private persons can buy and take with them when they travel between EU countries, as long as the products purchased are for personal use and not for resale, with exception of new means of transport. Taxes (VAT and excise) will be included in the price of the products in the Member State of purchase and no further payment of taxes can be due in any other Member State.
Tobacco and alcoholHowever, special rules apply in the case of certain goods subject to excise duty, such as alcoholic beverages and tobacco products. If a private person purchases such products in one Member State and takes them to another Member State, the principle that no excise duty has to be paid in the Member State of destination only applies if the goods are:

• for the own use of the traveller; and
• transported by himself.

To determine whether these products are for the own use of the traveller, Member States must take account of all the relevant factors. One of the factors is the quantity of goods. Member States may set guide levels to indicate up to which quantity goods are generally considered as for the own use of the traveller. The guide levels should be at least:

a) Tobacco products

• cigarettes 800 items
• cigarillos (cigars weighing not more than 3 g each) 400 items
• cigars 200 items
• smoking tobacco 1.0 kg

b) Alcoholic beverages

• spirit drinks 10 litres
• intermediate products 20 litres
• wines (including a maximum of 60 litres of sparkling wines) 90 litres
• beers 110 litres

As regards tobacco products, EU countries may limit the number of cigarettes you can bring with you from certain other EU countries which do not yet charge the minimum level of excise duty. This limit cannot be lower than 300 cigarettes.
As it stands now, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia and Sweden apply this lower limit for travellers coming from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania or Romania.

Online & remote selling

If you sell excise goods to your private customers on the internet, you must pay the excise duty and rates of the country where the customers live.
In most EU countries the appointment of a tax representative is obligatory; one of their roles is to pay excise duty on your behalf, if that country's responsible authority approves this action.
Before shipping you must:

• inform the destination-country responsible authority of the delivery;
• provide a guarantee that the excise duties will be paid.

Getting duty reimbursed

If you have already paid excise duties in your own country on the goods you sold (to avoid paying twice), you can get this amount reimbursed. To do so, you must:

• inform your own authority of the shipment, (as well as the destination country);
• provide them with evidence that you paid duty on the goods in the destination country.

Tobacco products

Online selling of tobacco products in some EU countries may require the seller to:

• use the destination country's tax stamps or other fiscal markings to show that the excise duty was paid there;
• provide health warnings in the language(s) of the destination country;
• register in the Member State where the seller is established and in the Member State of the consumer.

​Member States may prohibit cross-border distance sales of tobacco products to consumers.