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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/excise-notice-476-tobacco-products-duty/excise-notice-476-tobacco-products-duty

This notice cancels and replaces Notice 476 (October 2019).

This notice is about Tobacco Products Duty and the fiscal marking requirements for tobacco products. It’s primarily of interest to tobacco manufacturers and importers of tobacco products.

This notice deals with the:

It’s primarily intended for anyone who manufactures or imports tobacco products. However, anyone holding, transporting, selling or dealing in specified tobacco products should read section 12, Annex 1 and Annex 2.

The law specifically concerned with tobacco products duty and fiscal marks is the:

The law specifically concerned with raw tobacco is the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979 (as amended by Finance Act 2016).

You should also be aware of your responsibilities under The Revenue Traders (Accounts and Records) Regulations 1992.

This notice explains how we interpret the law. Where appropriate, sections of this notice contain a reference to the relevant law. Sometimes the law says that detailed rules on a particular matter will be set out in a notice published by the commissioners of HMRC, rather than in a Statutory Instrument. Parts of this notice contain certain requirements which are mandatory. They have legal force and supplement the law. These parts affected are noted. They have the force of law by virtue of regulation 7(5) and regulation 7(6) of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001 unless some other provision is mentioned as giving them that effect.

This notice does not deal in any detail with procedures concerning imported tobacco products, which are cleared at the place of importation, warehoused in an excise warehouse or imported by Registered Consignees (which will apply in Northern Ireland only) or Temporary Registered Consignees (which will apply in Northern Ireland only). If you import or warehouse tobacco products you should read:

‘Duty’ means Tobacco Products Duty unless other duties are named.

If you do not already have existing formal arrangements for contacting HMRC you should, in the first instance, contact the helpline.

These are matters dealt with by the Department of Health. Current Regulations for which they’re responsible include the Tobacco Products (Manufacture, Presentation and Sale) (Safety) Regulations 2002.

These cover the health labelling requirements on tobacco packaging and the maximum permitted yields of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide. You can find further information on the Department of Health website.

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 imposes general duties on employers towards their employees and towards persons other than their employees. The latter category of persons includes any of our officers who may be visiting your premises on official business. You must indicate any hazards which we may encounter during the course of our official duties. If you’re asked by one of our officers to cease any activity for the purposes of inspection, you must indicate any residual hazards which may remain after you’ve ceased the particular activity.

On 1 April 2010 we introduced new system of penalties for:

We can charge a penalty if your return or other tax documents are inaccurate and as a result you do not pay enough tax or if you do not tell us that a tax assessment we have sent you is too low. We’ll not penalise you if you take reasonable care to get your tax right. Taking reasonable care includes:

We can apply a penalty if you do not tell us at the right time that:

We’ll issue a wrongdoing penalty where a person:

This penalty applies to anyone registered for VAT or excise purposes, anyone who should be registered to pay VAT or excise duties and to other members of the general public.

The penalty will be a percentage of the potential lost revenue, such as the amount of duty on any tobacco products manufactured in premises which have not been properly registered. The percentage used will depend on whether the wrongdoing was:

The penalty may then be reduced to take account of whether, and to what extent, you tried to make us aware of the wrongdoing. The reduction depends on:

A disclosure is unprompted if you tell us when you have no reason to believe that we have discovered or are about to discover the wrongdoing.

Read more information on penalties in our Compliance check factsheets.

HMRC may also charge you with a civil penalty of £250 for failing to comply with a regulation under Section 9 Finance Act 1994.

For further information see Excise Notice 209: civil penalties - fixed, geared and daily.

The following goods are all liable to Tobacco Products Duty if they are made wholly or partly from tobacco or from any substance used as a substitute for tobacco:

For the purposes of this notice all references to tobacco products in this notice includes herbal smoking products.

Duty is not charged on nasal snuff. Oral snuff is not liable to Tobacco Products Duty but its sale in the UK is prohibited under the Tobacco for Oral Use (Safety) Regulations 1992.

Cigarette rag and expanded tobacco which can be smoked without further processing are also liable to duty if they pass a duty point (see paragraph 2.19).

You can find detailed descriptions of all of these products in the glossary.

Herbal smoking products that are imported into, or manufactured in the UK are also liable to tobacco products duty. These products will be treated for tax purposes as if they contained tobacco, unless they’re licensed to be used exclusively for medical purposes.

The UK leaving the EU will not change the types of products which are subject to excise duty, but will affect the movement of all tobacco products.

Anyone manufacturing, importing or storing tobacco products in duty-suspension must comply with certain legal requirements and directions made by the commissioners of HMRC. The following requirements are central to the control and collection of Tobacco Products Duty:

The rest of this notice sets out in detail the requirements to be observed, particularly in respect of registered premises. These requirements may sometimes be supplemented or varied as necessary to secure the revenue or to reflect a trader’s particular circumstances. Where this happens, we’ll notify you in writing. Excise Notice 197: receipt into and removal from an excise warehouse of excise goods, sets out the requirements and conditions for the receipt and holding of tobacco products in excise warehouses.

The duty on cigarettes has 3 elements:

First element is the ad valorem component, which is a percentage of the retail price added to the Second element, which is a set amount of money per 1,000 cigarettes. This total is then compared to the Third element, the Minimum Excise Tax (MET) rate set per 1,000 cigarettes.

The amount of excise duty payable is the higher amount after the comparison of the 2 calculations has been made.

The current rates of duty for all tobacco products and the MET rate per 1,000 cigarettes are shown in UK Trade Tariff: excise duties, reliefs, drawbacks and allowances. You can also get them from the helpline.

The retail price is usually taken as the manufacturers or importer’s recommended retail selling price in force at the time the cigarettes become chargeable with duty. That price must include all duties and taxes. If there’s no recommended retail price, duty must be calculated on the highest retail price at which cigarettes of that description are normally sold by retail in the UK.

If you manufacture or import a brand of cigarettes which do not have a recommended retail price, you should contact us for advice.

The duty is normally based on the retail price for packets of 20 cigarettes. A brand may, however, also be sold in packets containing a different number of cigarettes (for example, vending packets). In such a case the ad valorem element of the duty is still calculated by reference to the retail price for 20 cigarettes. The retail price for a standard packet of 20 cigarettes of the brand in question is applied, pro rata, to the number of cigarettes in the non-standard packet. If a brand of cigarettes is not sold in packets of 20 you should contact us for advice.

Any cigarette more than 8 centimetres (cm) long (excluding filter or mouthpiece) is treated for duty purposes as though the first 8cm of it, each 3cm portion of the remainder of it and the remaining portion of it (if any) were a separate cigarette. For example, if a cigarette is 12cm long (excluding filter or mouthpiece) it’s to be regarded as 3 cigarettes (one 8cm cigarette, one 3cm cigarette and one 1cm cigarette). The duty payable is reckoned by taking the current percentage of the retail price in the normal way but calculating the specific duty on the equivalent of 3 cigarettes.

Regulation 15 of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001 requires both manufacturers and importers of tobacco products to provide HMRC with certain information about their brands. The following list details the information that you’re required to provide but is not a reproduction of Regulation 15. You must provide the following:

You must advise any changes, deletions or additions to that list or details as soon as possible and always before the changes or additions take effect. We would normally expect you to provide this information in the form of your recommended price list. If you do not have a recommended price list then you can forward the information to us on letter headed paper. Manufacturers should, as part of the premises registration procedure, make arrangements to supply this information to us at the relevant time. Importers can forward the information to us on letter headed paper. If possible, send all pricing information electronically to holding.movement@hmrc.gov.uk.

HMRC Tobacco Team Indirect Tax 3W Ralli Quays 3 Stanley Street Salford M60 9LA

Failure to supply this information amounts to a regulatory breach which can attract a penalty of £250 under Section 9 Finance Act 1994 (see paragraph 1.8).

For all tobacco products, except cigarettes, the duty is based on the net weight of the whole product. The current rates of duty are shown in Volume 1, Part 12 of the Tariff. They can also be obtained from the helpline.

A private individual must pay the duty on any tobacco products that they make from tobacco which they have grown. This applies whether the tobacco products are intended for sale or solely for the grower’s own consumption. Anyone intending to manufacture tobacco products must comply with the conditions set out in this notice. You must register the premises which you use to make tobacco and complete form TP7A to account for all tobacco products that you have manufactured for your own consumption and on which duty is due. While all registration applications will be considered on a case by case basis, it is highly unlikely that home premises will meet the registration requirements. (See paragraph 4.5 on the conditions that must be met before we would consider registering premises for the manufacture of tobacco.)

We consider any production of cigarettes, other than where a hand-held device is used to make single cigarettes, to be manufacturing. Any premises where cigarettes are produced in this way are subject to the conditions set out in this notice, even if Tobacco Products Duty has already been paid on the tobacco being used. If you’re considering starting a business which operates in this way, you should contact us using the contact information in paragraph 1.5 before you begin.

Raw tobacco is a high risk commodity that brings a certain amount of scrutiny from HMRC, to satisfy us that excise duty is not at risk.

All businesses and individuals are prohibited from carrying on any activity involving raw tobacco unless they hold an approval by HMRC, or are exempted from the requirement to hold an approval. Further details are available in Notice 2003: Tobacco Duty – the Raw Tobacco Approval Scheme.

If you hold an approval from HMRC to sell raw tobacco you must ensure that your customer also holds an approval to acquire raw tobacco.

Any failure to show that the sale of raw tobacco is carried on for a legitimate purpose may result in the seizure of imports of raw tobacco and possible criminal prosecution if we believe the supplies made have facilitated excise fraud.

Provided that you meet certain conditions you do not have to pay duty on tobacco products used in, for example, scientific or medical research or other experimental work involving tobacco products. If you wish to use tobacco products without paying duty, you must apply in writing to HMRC well before you intend to obtain the tobacco products concerned. (You can find information on how to contact us in paragraph 1.5 of this notice.) Your application must include details of the:

If we approve your application we’ll advise you in writing of:

Provided your herbal smoking products are granted a UK marketing licence from the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) any herbal smoking products that are used exclusively for medical purposes are exempt from Tobacco Products Duty.

Duty is not payable on samples of tobacco products drawn in registered premises for tar, nicotine or other tests required by the Department of Health. You can draw samples in similar quantities without payment of duty for use in your own parallel tests on the premises, provided that the conditions in paragraph 2.11 are met. Duty is not payable on samples drawn for HMRC purposes.

You can draw samples of chargeable products free of duty for production control purposes in the factory. You should apply in writing to us stating your intentions. You must then comply with the conditions we set. In particular:

These conditions will be imposed under powers granted to the Commissioners by paragraph 2(2) of the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979 and can be the subject of an appeal if you disagree. (See section 13.)

While tobacco refuse remains fit for consumption it is liable to duty and subject to official control. Our interest in the refuse ceases when we are satisfied that the refuse has been rendered unfit for consumption.

Tobacco products which become unfit for sale prior to removal from registered premises may be treated in the same way as other tobacco refuse and sent for destruction (see paragraph 11.5).

Read more information about the disposal of tobacco plants grown in the UK that have died and become waste in Notice 2003: Tobacco Duty – the Raw Tobacco Approval Scheme.

The definition of hand-rolling tobacco in article 6 of the Tobacco Products (Description of Products) Order 2003 includes tobacco ‘that is of a kind used for making into cigarettes’. Pipe tobacco used for making cigarettes could attract duty at the rate appropriate for hand-rolling tobacco. If you know or suspect that any of your pipe tobacco is being used in this way, you should contact us to discuss the situation. (You can find information on how to contact us in paragraph 1.5.)

We’ll investigate where we suspect that a brand of pipe tobacco is being used for making into cigarettes, even if it’s being sold as pipe tobacco and meets the particle width criteria for pipe tobacco (see definitions in the glossary). If we consider that the evidence of use renders the tobacco liable to duty at the hand-rolling rate, we’ll discuss the matter with you as the manufacturer or importer of the brand concerned. We may then advise you that the duty on future removals or clearances of that brand should be paid at the rate appropriate for hand-rolling tobacco.

Liability to the duty arises when the tobacco products:

You’re potentially liable to pay the duty on any products being processed, stored or transported in a duty-free regime.

Tobacco which can be smoked without further industrial processing is considered to be smokeable, even if it’s not considered suitable for retail sale. This includes cigarette rag and expanded tobacco.

Our policy is that raw tobacco leaf that has been cut, split, twisted or pressed into blocks (including having the stem removed) and is contained in individual packages that are generally less than 20kgs in weight will be considered liable to duty as ‘other smoking tobacco’. This is because we consider such tobacco to be smokeable without further industrial processing. Excise duty is due on such tobacco at importation if pre packed; or at the point where tobacco is packaged in the UK.

Regulation 14 of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001 requires that the duty be paid at or before the excise duty point, unless deferment arrangements apply. Further details on duty deferment may be found at section 10.

The excise duty points for tobacco products are set out in the Excise Goods (Holding, Movement and Duty Point) Regulations 2010. The duty points which are most relevant to tobacco manufacturing are as follows.

There’s an excise duty point at the time when tobacco products are released for consumption in the UK. This includes where the goods:

This list is not exhaustive. Importers of tobacco products can find more information about the duty points for imported excise goods in the notices referred to in paragraph 1.4.

Where duty suspension arrangements do not apply to chewing tobacco and tobacco for heating which is imported into the UK (or transported from GB to Northern Ireland), the excise duty point is the time the chewing tobacco or tobacco for heating is received by the importer, owner or other person beneficially interested in it.

If tobacco products are relieved from payment of duty and there’s a contravention of any conditions attaching to that relief, the duty point is either the time of that contravention or (if that time cannot be readily ascertained) the time when that contravention first came to the attention of the commissioners.

If the rate of duty changes, the new rate will apply to any product which passes the duty point when or after the new rate comes into effect. Tobacco product which is removed from a registered store after 11.59am on a day upon which the duty rate is increased, will be deemed to have been removed after the increase took effect. Similarly, tobacco product which is removed from an excise warehouse after 11.59am on a day upon which the duty rate is increased, will be deemed to have been removed after the increase took effect.

This also applies when the MET level changes. The new minimum amount of duty must be applied to all cigarettes that pass the duty point when or after the new rate comes into effect.

Tobacco Products Duty, together with any Customs Duty and import VAT, is payable at the time of importation unless the goods are:

You can find information on import procedures, and how to pay any duties and VAT due, in the Tariff, by contacting our helpline.

Where tobacco products are removed from a registered store, the manufacturer who occupies the store is liable to pay the duty. In the event of an irregular removal from a registered store, the person liable to pay the duty is the occupier of the registered store but any other person involved in that departure is jointly and severally liable to pay. Importers of tobacco products can find more information about who is liable to pay duty at the duty points for imported excise goods in the notices referred to in paragraph 1.4.

This notice is primarily aimed at the manufacture of mainstream tobacco products, namely cigarettes, cigars, hand-rolling tobacco, other smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco and tobacco for heating.

However, new products, outside the mainstream, are increasingly entering the UK market. The aim of this section is to highlight those products and advise on their treatment for duty purposes.

Many unusual tobacco products are imported into the UK rather than being manufactured here. Often when these goods are imported the Customs Tariff is consulted to categorise the goods and calculate any Customs Duty which may be payable. The Tariff is an internationally agreed system of naming products and although it may give an indication of whether excise duty is payable it does not dictate whether excise duty is due.

Tobacco Products Duty is charged by section 2 of the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979. The products which are liable to duty are listed in section 1 and further defined in the Tobacco Products (Descriptions of Products Order) 2003.

This table is not exhaustive but shows some of the products that might need specific clarification in terms of liability to Tobacco Products Duty.

If a product contains tobacco or herbal smoking mixtures and is smoked or chewed it is liable to Tobacco Products Duty.

With the exception of cigarettes, tobacco products are subject to duty according to the net weight of the product, that is, the product without its packaging. For tobacco for heating products any encasement or delivery method surrounding the tobacco is excluded for the calculation.

The rate of duty is determined by the classification of the product. The duty is applied to the net weight of the tobacco product, not just the tobacco element. Products made wholly or partly from tobacco, or any substance used as a substitute for tobacco, are liable to duty.

Herbal smoking products that do not contain tobacco are also be liable to tobacco products duty in the same way and at the same rate as their tobacco equivalents.

Nasal snuff is not subject to tobacco products duty in the UK. You will need to be approved by HMRC if you manufacture nasal snuff, either for personal use or for sale. Approval procedures and exemptions are contained in Notice 2003: Tobacco Duty – the Raw Tobacco Approval Scheme.

Herbal smoking products that are used exclusively for medical purposes and covered by a licence granted by the Medical and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are exempt from Tobacco Products Duty.

If you are in any doubt about these products and their liability to duty you should contact us and provide full details.

Raw whole leaf tobacco is not liable to Tobacco Products Duty. All businesses and individuals are prohibited from carrying on any activity involving raw tobacco unless they hold an approval from HMRC or an exemption applies. Approval procedures and exemptions are contained in Notice 2003: Tobacco Duty – the Raw Tobacco Approval Scheme.

Raw tobacco leaf that has been cut, split, twisted or pressed into blocks (including having the stem removed) and is contained in individual packages that are generally less than 20kgs in weight will be considered liable to duty as ‘other smoking tobacco’.

If you wish to manufacture or import tobacco products in the UK and are unsure about the liability, contact the helpline.

Premises used for the manufacture or safe storage of tobacco products must be registered under Regulation 4 or 5 of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001. Registered premises is the collective term used to describe both registered factories and registered stores.

Registered factories and stores are covered in more detail in sections 5, this section covers general information which applies to both types of registered premises.

If you wish to open a new tobacco factory or store you should write to us. If you already manufacture tobacco products in the UK you’ll have an established contact point. If you’re opening manufacturing premises for the first time your first point of contact should be:

HMRC Excise Processing Team BX9 1GL

You must include the following information in your letter:

Once we’re satisfied that the required conditions (see paragraph 4.4) have been met you’ll be issued with a registration letter. The registration letter will contain details of the premises registered and any particular conditions applying to those premises.

Herbal smoking products are liable to tobacco products duty and will be treated in the same way as tobacco products. This means that UK manufactured herbal smoking products:

If you’re not already registered as a factory or store you must write to the Excise Processing Team. Make sure you write to us well in advance as this will allow us to carry out the relevant checks and avoid any delays.

If your business is under one legal entity and you’re already registered as a factory or store for the manufacture of tobacco products you may be able to extend your registered premises to incorporate the factory and store for the manufacture of herbal smoking products. You should write to the Excise Processing Team and give at least 30 days notice of your intentions.

Where your business is not under one legal entity then you must write to the Excise Processing Team to become a registered tobacco factory or store.

Once we’re satisfied that the required conditions (see paragraph 4.5 and 4.6) have been met you’ll be issued with a registration letter. The registration letter will contain details of the premises registered and any particular conditions applying to those premises.

Under powers granted by Regulation 6 of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001, we may revoke the registration of premises where there has been failure to comply with or contravention of any:

Under powers granted by Regulation 10 of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001, we may revoke an approval for ‘electronic removal’ in a registered store (see section 9).

Where we revoke your approval we’ll normally give you not less than 3 months notice. However, if in exceptional circumstances, we consider it necessary for the protection of the revenue, we may give less than 3 months notice.

Before we register any premises as a factory or store you must satisfy the following conditions:

Failure to comply with these conditions may result in a refusal to register the premises concerned. You may also be liable to penalties if you fail to apply to register with HMRC at the right time or if your monthly duty return is inaccurate. See paragraph 1.8 for more details.

The following general conditions apply to registered premises:

The following paragraph has the force of law

The physical extent of registered premises must not exceed that shown in the registration letter. Tobacco product held outside of registered premises must not be entered into or remain in the stock records for those premises. (This condition is imposed under Regulation 7(5)(a) of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001.)

HMRC can impose additional conditions if they consider it necessary for the protection of the revenue.

We consider premises to be occupied by a manufacturer if:

The registration will always clearly define the area within which, provided that all the conditions are met, tobacco products may be manufactured or stored. When you apply for registration you must submit a plan of the premises which you wish to register as a factory or store. It’s possible for the registered factory or store to cover only part of the commercial premises. Tobacco Products Duty must have been paid, secured or otherwise accounted for on any tobacco products outside registered premises (except as may be allowed in exceptional circumstances by us).

‘Premises’ do not have to be a building but do have to be an enclosed area of ground. As a manufacturer you can apply to register, as a store, an area of ground instead of a building or part of a building. We refer to registered stores which are not buildings as ‘open-air’ stores. They’re acceptable in principle provided that all other conditions or requirements concerning the registration of a store can be met. These conditions are set out in paragraph 6.6.

Specific software packages are not endorsed by HMRC. Your obligations regarding stock control, duty payment, and so on, are the same whether you have manual or computer systems. Software packages which have been accepted for use in some warehouses or registered premises may not be appropriate for use in others. If you wish to use computer records you should apply to us sufficiently in advance to allow our requirements to be incorporated into your proposal. Details must be provided of the system that you intend to adopt. Any existing manual system must be maintained until such time as we permit the use of a computer system. You may also apply to us for permission to use computer generated versions of official forms. You should include specimens of the computer generated forms with your application, so that we can check that they meet official requirements. Where we approve the use of computer records, conditions will usually be imposed under section 118A of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979. The conditions will require:

Failure to comply with these requirements may result in a refusal to register the premises concerned or lead to the revocation of the registration. You must ensure that safeguards exist to protect your system from inadvertent corruption whilst being viewed by us. We suggest that you:

Remember that additional conditions apply to ‘electronic removal’ which is dealt with in section 9.

Unless you already have alternative arrangements in place with us, you must write to the Excise Processing Team in Glasgow if, at any time after the premises have been registered, you intend to extend or reduce the premises or alter the security arrangements. You must give at least 30 days notice of your intentions. You must also give 7 days notice of alterations to the times when the premises are open. You should also advise us well in advance of any other intended changes, for example, to your computer systems, which may affect the registration of the premises.

You may receive imported tobacco products into your registered premises either direct from the place of importation or via an excise warehouse, without payment of Tobacco Products Duty provided that any Customs Duty due, other than where duty suspended EU movements are dispatched to Northern Ireland, has been paid or accounted for. That is, the payment has been deferred under duty deferment arrangements agreed with HMRC.

In the case of tobacco products in free circulation, the appropriate arrangements for the receipt of such goods will apply. (See Excise Notice 197: receipt into and removal from an excise warehouse of excise goods.)

In the case of tobacco products entered for free circulation at the port or airport of importation or in a customs and excise warehouse, any examination and account for excise duty purposes may be done at:

Current procedures and instructions for consigning goods to EU member states (Northern Ireland only) are contained in Excise Notice 197: receipt into and removal from an excise warehouse of excise goods. The same rules apply to herbal smoking products.

The same general principles apply as for exports from excise warehouses (see Excise Notice 197: receipt into and removal from an excise warehouse of excise goods). Consolidation of duty suspended and other goods at unauthorised premises (within the UK) may be allowed under the following conditions:

You must apply for registration of any premises in which you intend to manufacture tobacco products for purposes other than research or experiment. The manufacture of tobacco products other than in registered factories is illegal unless the products are to be used for the purposes of research or experiment. You should contact us if you think that your intended manufacture falls within the scope of research or experiment. See paragraph 4.2 for details of how to apply for registration.

You may also be liable to penalties if you fail to apply to register with HMRC at the right time, see paragraph 1.8.

You must remove all tobacco products from your registered factory by the end of the first business day following the day of manufacture. We may allow you to dispense with this condition in exceptional circumstances but you should contact us as soon as possible if you feel that this is necessary. For the purposes of this requirement, the tobacco product is considered to have been manufactured once it crosses the Production Account Point (see paragraph 5.4). This should mean that, in practice, the day of manufacture will be the day the tobacco product is recorded in the production account (see paragraph 8.2).

Subject to any fiscal marking (see section 12, Annex 1 and Annex 2) or other requirements, you may remove tobacco products from your registered factory to home use on payment of the duty. This amounts to a ‘factory gate’ duty point and you should discuss the implications with us.

This is the precise, clearly defined physical point through which all tobacco products are channelled after manufacture, but before they enter a registered store, where the production account is raised.

We may register premises for the safe storage of tobacco products without payment of duty, provided that they are:

Only a manufacturer who occupies a registered factory can apply for a registered store. The definition of ‘manufacturer’ is that given in Regulation 3 of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001 (see glossary).

Manufacturers can lease a facility, which is owned and operated by an unrelated storage company, provided that the:

The same area of a building cannot be both an excise warehouse and a registered store. It is, however, possible for a registered store to be physically part of a larger building and for the rest of the building to be an excise warehouse. Where the registered store is physically attached to an excise warehouse all of the following conditions apply:

Failure to comply with these conditions may result in a refusal to register or the revocation of the registration of the premises concerned.

Tobacco product that has been manufactured in the UK and which is intended for home use may only be stored in duty-suspension in a registered store. UK manufactured tobacco product which is intended for export or any other duty-free purpose may be stored in an excise warehouse but may not be removed to home use from the excise warehouse. Imported tobacco products which are intended for removal to home use in the UK can be stored in an excise warehouse.

‘Open air’ stores are described in paragraph 4.9.

The following additional conditions also apply to premises that are to be registered as an open air store:

You can re-pack tobacco products in a registered store provided that you give us reasonable notice of your intentions. We would normally expect the period of notice to be at least 24 hours, not including weekends and public holidays. If you intend to carry out continuous or regular re-packing you may agree standing arrangements with us.

Your re-packing operations may affect your registration conditions relating to ‘breaking bulk’ and ‘offsetting’ (see paragraphs 6.8 and 8.10). You should discuss this with us.

‘Bulk’ in this context means the bulk production unit (for example a stock case or tray) in which the products have passed the Production Account Point, as distinct from the smaller units (for example, 20 or 200 cigarettes) in which they are normally put up for retail sale. You must agree what is to be regarded as the ‘bulk unit’ with us. Breaking bulk, means opening bulk units to remove internal packages. ‘Offsetting’ (see paragraph 8.10) may be allowed only if you’ve elected not to break bulk within the registered store. If the terms of your premises registration permit you to break bulk within the registered store, you’ll be expected to account for the duty on all stock deficiencies and not take credit for any surpluses that might otherwise be offset.

See section 9 for particular conditions applying to registered stores which are approved to use ‘electronic removal’.

If you do not wish to put imported tobacco products into your registered store there are a number of alternatives available to you. For information about importations into warehouses read the notices detailed in paragraph 1.4 or consult the helpline.

If you wish to store innocent goods in your registered store, you should make a written request to us. Your request should be made either when applying for the registration of the store, or later as a request for variation of the conditions of the registration.

You should consider the following points before you request this facility:

Product that has been inadvertently removed to an excise warehouse can be received back into your registered store subject to the following conditions:

Subject to any fiscal marking (see section 12, Annex 1 and Annex 2 or other requirements, you may remove tobacco products from your registered store without payment of duty for any of the following purposes:

You can store tobacco products which were produced by another manufacturer in your registered store provided that you take ownership of them.

UK manufactured tobacco product, which is intended for home use and on which duty has not been paid, can be stored only in a registered store. Such storage is limited to the companies involved in the manufacture of tobacco products.

You’re responsible for protecting tobacco products in your registered premises from improper interference or removal. This responsibility is not reduced by our official checks or presence. You should pay special attention to your security arrangements between the stage at which raw material first becomes dutiable and the point at which the Production Account is raised.

The structural security of your premises and the control of goods, persons having authorised access to the premises, and vehicles entering or leaving your premises are your responsibility. We can, however, require you to make improvements in your arrangements if we think that the registered premises have become unsatisfactory for the purpose for which they’re registered.

You should also ensure that all persons on your registered premises are aware that:

Our warning Excise Notice 50: duty free warehouse warning is available for display throughout your premises but you can use your own form of notice if it carries a similar warning.

It’s compulsory to provide financial security for goods which are in transit in the UK. Additionally, we can, if we deem it necessary for the protection of the revenue, require you to provide security for the duty on tobacco products which is chargeable but has not yet been paid or accounted for. This applies to products:

The following 3 paragraphs and bullets have the force of law

As the occupier of a registered factory you must keep records showing the quantities and descriptions of:

(b) all materials used in each manufacturing batch or during any period of manufacture agreed with us

(c) all materials disposed of

(d) any refuse deriving from materials used

(e) all refuse disposed of and

(f) all tobacco products in your possession prior to their entry into the production account.

You must also record, in relation to the records kept under paragraphs 8.1 (a), (b), (c) and (e) above, the date of receipt, use or disposal of the materials or refuse concerned.

These records must be preserved for a period of 6 years, or such lesser period as we may allow.

Under Regulation 14(3) of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001 you are required to keep a Production Account. This is a continuous daily account of the quantity of tobacco products made in the factory.

For each tobacco product the Production Account must show the:

The Production Account need not show any products intended for immediate recycling in the same factory.

The Production Account will normally be based on the number of retail packs per bulk unit, for example, stock case or tray (see paragraph 6.8) in which the products are to be stored. The point at which the Production Account is raised is the accounting point for establishing the daily quantity of tobacco products that you manufacture. It must be based on accurate physical counting of all products made.

The point at which the account is raised must be before the product is removed from the factory. The time at which the Production Account is raised may be when the tobacco products are first put into a state suitable for consumption, or put into a state suitable for removal, or packed for delivery. The point and time at which the Production Account is raised, as agreed with us, will be detailed in the registration letter for the premises concerned. If you wish to alter the Production Account Point you must obtain approval from us.

You are required to preserve the Production Account for not less than 6 years, unless we allow otherwise.

You should reconcile the quantities of materials received into your factory with the quantities of tobacco products that you manufacture.

Under section 8(1) of the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979 you may be required to provide a written statement or return accounting for tobacco products, or materials for their manufacture, which are or have been in your possession or under your control. The length of the period covered by the statement or return must be agreed with us. This period can be suited to the size and nature of operations and the accounting arrangements at the factory, but it will not normally exceed 3 months. Your own reconciliation procedures will normally form the basis for the statement or return and will be subject to audits and checks by us.

As the occupier of a registered factory you must keep an account of all tobacco products removed from the factory. You must keep each such account at the registered factory unless we advise you in writing that you may do otherwise.

Each account must contain the following details for tobacco products which have been removed from the registered factory:

These must be preserved for a period of 6 years, or such lesser period as we may allow.

As the occupier of a registered store you must keep stock accounts of all tobacco products received into the store, operated upon within the store and removed from the store. You must keep each account at the registered store unless we advise you in writing that you may do otherwise.

These records must be preserved for a period of 6 years, or such lesser period as we may allow.

The following sentence and 7 bullets have the force of law

Each such account must contain the following details for tobacco products which have been received, operated upon, or removed:

Each account must be balanced and reconciled with stock held in the store on a regular basis as agreed with us.

Tobacco products received from other registered premises must be entered in the store records in the usual manner. These will be subject to inspection and audit by us.

Duty is payable on all removals to home use.

If you remove product to home use from registered premises you are required to submit a return (TP7) showing the quantities of products delivered to home use and the amount of duty due. Further to the introduction of the MET on 20 May 2017 from 31 March 2017 a revised TP7 includes new boxes to account for any additional duty due in cases where the MET is higher than the usual application of duties. A TP7 return must be submitted daily unless you are approved for duty deferment. In that case you may be permitted to submit the TP7 on a monthly basis. The submission of a monthly TP7 must be agreed by us.

You will not normally be required to complete an official return for removals for purposes other than home use. In most cases the records that you are required to keep and your commercial documentation, which accompanies the tobacco products, will be sufficient. We must agree your record systems and be satisfied that your commercial documents are sufficient for our purposes.

The following sentence and table have the force of law

For each type of duty-free removal you must keep the records and supporting commercial documentation specified in the following table.

The requirement to keep store and factory records and keep and preserve consignment notes and invoices is imposed under powers granted to the Commissioners by the Revenue Traders (Accounts and Records) Regulations 1992. The records required must be preserved for a period of 6 years, or such lesser period as we may allow.

The following requirements are imposed under powers granted to the Commissioners by Regulation 6 of the Revenue Traders (Accounts and Records) Regulations 1992.

The following sentence and 8 bullets have the force of law

For each duty-free removal the store and factory records referred to in the table above must show the following information:

The requirement for any customs entries, transit documents or other official forms (for example, C88, eAD, FAD, C426 or C185) is additional to the records and commercial documentation listed above.

You’re required to notify us without delay of any discrepancy you find between the quantities shown in your stock records and those actually held in the store. You’re potentially liable to pay duty on any:

Minor picking errors may occur from time to time resulting in discrepancies, (surpluses or deficiencies), in the stock records which cancel each other out over the monthly accounting period. In other cases it may be possible to show that individual deficiencies and surpluses result from related bookkeeping errors, rather than from actual changes in the physical stocks.

As a concession you may be allowed to offset individual deficiencies and excesses provided that:

If the errors are not self-balancing within the monthly accounting period, you may be allowed to carry a surplus forward to the following month. This will only be allowed if a compensating error is expected to cancel out the apparent surplus. A surplus cannot be carried forward for more than one accounting period. Deficiencies cannot be carried forward. Duty must be paid on any unresolved deficiencies within the accounting period.

The procedures are the same as those shown in Excise Notice 197: receipt into and removal from an excise warehouse of excise goods, for excise goods imported to an excise warehouse. But any Customs Duty must be paid or accounted for before the tobacco product is received into the registered store.

Tobacco products may be removed from the port of importation to the registered store for examination, provided that they are:

Approval for the first account of the goods (the ‘import account’) to be taken at the registered store must be contained in the registration letter referred to in paragraph 4.2. You may also apply in writing at a later date to us.

Imported tobacco products may be selected for examination, and an import account raised, at the port of importation. You may, with our prior agreement, request that the goods be examined at your registered store. In such cases the goods will be officially sealed before leaving the port and you must not break the seals until authorised by us. In order to minimise delays you should notify us in good time of the expected arrival of containers under official seal.

Imported tobacco products cleared at the port will not be officially sealed. The tobacco products may be taken into your registered store but you must tell us immediately if there’s any discrepancy between the goods actually received and what is shown on the import declaration.

When goods are moved from the point of importation to the registered store the movement must be supported by a transaction on the Electronic Movement and Control System (EMCS). Receipt of the goods will need to be acknowledged on the system to clear the movement. For further details of the EMCS procedures, see Excise Notice 197: receipt into and removal from an excise warehouse of excise goods.

This is an optional and additional facility to:

Electronic removal amounts to a change from duty-suspended to duty-paid status in the records kept on a computer or other electronic system and is an irreversible transaction. Your computer or electronic system must preclude the possibility of any deliberate or accidental reversal from duty-paid to duty-suspended status.

You should note that any specific requirements concerning electronic removal are in addition to the other conditions applying to registered stores.

You must apply to us for approval to operate electronic removal in a particular store. Before we grant approval, we’ll examine the computer system that you propose to use, and will advise you of any modifications which are necessary. You should, therefore, approach us as early as possible in the planning stage.

We’ll advise you of all the requirements for the system, but these will include the following:

Failure to comply with these requirements may result in a refusal to register, or lead to the revocation of the registration concerned.

Only one type of removal may be used for determining the change of status of tobacco products from duty-suspended to duty-paid, within the physical area designated as the registered store. The registration may be altered to allow physical removal in exceptional circumstances and for the period of time that the electronic removal system is inoperable. You should contact us for advice in such circumstances.

In order to operate a break bulk or mixed picking area, the bulk units must first be electronically removed then physically transported to a physically demarcated duty paid location. You should discuss your proposals and our detailed requirements with us.

Should you wish to break down bulk units that have been electronically removed but which are still located within the mixed storage area, you should contact us immediately for advice.

The records required must be preserved for a period of 6 years, or such lesser period as we may allow.

If you want to keep records on a medium other than paper (for instance, microfilm or microfiche), you also need our approval. See Excise Notice 206: revenue traders’ records for further details.

You should follow the procedures as set out in your registration letter and any instruction or advice that you subsequently receive from us.

Regulation 9(6) of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001 also applies in the case of electronic removal. This means that any electronic removal of tobacco product after 11.59am on a day upon which the duty rate is increased, will be deemed to have been removed after the increase took effect. (See also paragraph 2.17.)

Unless you’re approved to pay duty under duty deferment arrangements, payment is required on a daily basis before the tobacco products are removed to home use. You should contact us to make the necessary arrangements.

Duty deferment is a system whereby the duty liability on goods removed to home use is accumulated during an accounting period and payment is made usually about 2 weeks after the end of the accounting period. Full details can be found in Notice 101: deferring duty, VAT and other charges.

The deferment accounting period for tobacco products duty, on removals to home use from registered premises, is the calendar month. Payment day is the 15th day of the month following the accounting period. If the 15th falls on a non-business day, payment must be made on the next business day.

Under the deferment system, payment is made by direct debit. If an emergency affects the direct debit method of payment in any period you’ll have to pay by some other means. We’ll contact you if this happens.

Following the introduction of a cap on 31 May 2012 by the Board of Bacs Payments Schemes Ltd (Bacs) which limits the maximum value of any single Bacs transaction, HMRC are no longer able to collect Direct Debits in excess of £20 million. If you regularly have a payment to make which exceeds £20 million, you need to make arrangements with your own bank to ensure payment reaches HMRC on the due date, by an alternative payment method such as CHAPS.

If you want to apply to defer excise duty (Tobacco Products Duty), you should follow the procedures set out in Notice 101: deferring duty, VAT and other charges. Imports (VAT Notice 702) has additional information about deferral of VAT.

When you return the completed forms, make it clear that you’re seeking approval for deferment of tobacco products duty on tobacco products removed from registered premises and quote ‘Notice 476’.

In certain circumstances you may be required to provide financial security in the form of a guarantee given by a financial institution approved by us for that purpose. This deferment guarantee is additional to and separate from any other security we require.

The guarantee must fully cover the first £5 million of your monthly duty liability. Any additional monthly duty liability of between £5 million and £50 million need be only partly secured. This means that you’ll have to provide security for the first £5 million plus 10% of your duty liability between £5 million and £50 million.

If, for example, your monthly duty liability were £50 million, your guarantee would be £9.5 million that is, £5 million (for the first £5 million of the total liability) + £4.5 million (that is, 10% of the remaining £45 million of the total liability).

The maximum guarantee that you may be required to provide is £9.5 million. This is because no extra guarantee is required for monthly liabilities above £50 million. Your guarantor can be liable for up to twice the amount shown on the guarantee. This is because you can defer up to your guarantee limit in one month and then again in the next month before you have paid for the first month.

If your extra liabilities in peak periods exceed your existing guarantee you must provide supplementary guarantees. Notice 101: deferring duty, VAT and other charges provides further details.

Under the Excise Payment Security System (EPSS) you can apply for authorisation to defer payments of excise duty without providing a guarantee. If you’re authorised you can benefit from a reduction in your deferment guarantee by not providing security for your deferred payments of excise duty. If you want to apply for authorisation you should follow the action set out in Notice 101: deferring duty, VAT and other charges.

You request deferment on the duty return form TP7. You should complete 2 copies of the return with details of the duty liability in the agreed accounting period.

You should present the returns to us within the agreed time limit. This will normally be within 4 working days of the end of the calendar month. Before each payment day you’ll receive from our Central Deferment Office an advice of the amount that will be debited on payment day.

You must pay cash using form TP7. As soon as you exceed or think that you may exceed your deferment limit, you should contact us. If you’re refused deferment facilities, either permanently or for the remainder of a month in which you exceed your guarantee limit, you’ll be allowed to remove tobacco products only against pre-payment of the duty in cash or by guaranteed cheque on a daily basis. That’s why it’s important for you to get your guarantee level right and operate the approved arrangements properly. You should therefore:

Notify our Central Deferment Office (see Notice 101: deferring duty, VAT and other charges) immediately if:

You should claim a repayment of duty under the terms of Regulation 26 of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001. Subject to certain conditions we’ll allow a credit for the duty paid on products returned from customers to registered premises, and on products previously removed to your own duty paid storage but not delivered to customers and returned to registered premises. The tobacco products must, with our agreement, have been:

‘Recycling’ and ‘repackaging’ have special meanings for duty credit purposes. Credit will be allowed only if the recycling or repackaging of the returned products is within the meaning of either word as given in the Regulation 3 of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001.

Credit of duty will not be permitted on tobacco products that were removed to home use more than 3 years before the date of the claim.

You can claim a repayment of duty under the terms of the Excise Goods (Drawback) Regulations 1995. You can find further information in Excise Notice 207: excise duty drawback or from the helpline. It is a condition of drawback that any fiscal marks carried by the tobacco products are obliterated or destroyed before a claim is made. (See section 12, Annex 1 and Annex 2 for more information.)

Duty credit will not be given on returned products which are in saleable condition and which are intended for re-issue without undergoing recycling or repackaging. Such products cannot be returned to duty suspended stock in registered premises. This applies also to products that are returned for repair or replacement of external packaging (the ‘stock-case’, for example). Minor re-packing operations like this do not attract duty credit.

The following sentence and 5 bullets have the force of law

You must keep a full record of returned products showing for each brand:

These records must be preserved for a period of 6 years, or such lesser period as we may allow.

Any fiscal marks carried by the products must be destroyed or permanently obliterated.

Responsibility for destruction of the goods remains with the manufacturer or importer. Methods of destruction include incineration, grinding or denaturing. It’s essential that all the product is destroyed or rendered unsmokeable. You should agree the particular destruction methods to be used and the notification procedure with us.

Destructions are subject to the same official controls and audits as the rest of the manufacturing and storage process. In addition to meeting our requirements for any authorised destruction, you must also be aware of your legal responsibilities under legislation dealing with the control of pollution and protection of the environment. Any such or similar concerns should be resolved with the appropriate authorities before you submit your proposed method of destruction for our approval.

Duty will be credited or repaid at the rates of duty in force at the times when the products were originally removed to home use as shown on the TP7, commercial dispatch document, import entry, W6 or W6D.

For cigars, hand-rolling tobacco, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and tobacco for heating, duty will be repaid on the net weight of the products returned to the registered premises, provided that this does not exceed the weight on which duty was originally paid.

For cigarettes the amount of repayment will be determined by the actual number of cigarettes returned to the registered premises and the duty applicable as determined by the retail-selling price or the MET whichever is appropriate. For cigars, hand-rolling tobacco, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and tobacco for heating, duty will be repaid on the net weight of the tobacco product, provided that this does not exceed the weight on which duty was originally paid.

If you cannot determine the date that returned goods were removed to home use you should contact us for advice.

If you manufacture, import, hold, move, or sell cigarettes or hand-rolling tobacco you’ll need to be aware of and comply with the fiscal marking requirements. You can find more details in this section, Annex 1 and Annex 2 of this notice.

The Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979 sets out the framework for fiscal marks. The detailed requirements of the scheme are contained in the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001 and this notice.

A fiscal mark is a mark that must be carried on ‘specified tobacco products’ indicating that UK duty has been paid. The specification of the fiscal mark for specified tobacco products manufactured in or imported into the UK before 20 May 2019 is contained in Annex 1.

In accordance with the revised Tobacco Products Directive (Directive 2014/40/EU of 3 April 2014) all unit packs of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco must carry unique identifier traceability codes and new security features from 20 May 2019. To accommodate these requirements, changes have been made to the position of the fiscal mark on specified tobacco products.

The specification of the fiscal mark for specified tobacco products, manufactured in or imported into the UK from 20 May 2019 is contained in Annex 2.

Specified tobacco products manufactured in or imported into the UK must carry a fiscal mark unless specifically excluded from the scheme.

Specified tobacco products that are required to carry a fiscal mark, which are held by a person who is a revenue trader, must carry a compliant fiscal mark irrespective of the date they were manufactured, imported or removed to home use.

Specified tobacco products are those tobacco products listed in Regulation 21(2) of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001. Those products are:

The following tobacco products are not specified tobacco products and are not required to carry a fiscal mark:

Under Regulation 23(3) of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001, specified tobacco products that are not required to carry a fiscal mark must not carry a fiscal mark.

Specified tobacco products are not required to and must not carry a fiscal mark if they are for:

and they are not delivered to home use or otherwise made available for home use.

Specified tobacco products are also not required to and must not carry a fiscal mark if they are:

and any conditions attaching to the relief from duty in those circumstances are complied with.

Specified tobacco products which have been removed to home use in the Isle of Man are not required to and must not carry a fiscal mark if:

Further information concerning tobacco products removed to or consigned from the Isle of Man can be found in paragraphs 12.18 to 12.20.

Packs of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco which are manufactured in the UK and which are required to carry a fiscal mark must be marked when they’re packaged. In practice this will be before they leave the registered factory.

Packs of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco which are imported into the UK and which are required to carry a fiscal mark must be marked before they enter the UK. This includes packs of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco sent through the postal system which are intended for personal use.

Unmarked specified tobacco products may only be removed from registered premises for approved purposes. In most cases these are uses which do not involve the payment of duty. They are listed in Regulation 9(4) of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001. In summary the approved purposes are:

Specified tobacco products, which carry a fiscal mark and which are in registered premises, may be removed without payment of duty for the following purposes:

You must also comply with any conditions attached to such duty free removals.

Specified tobacco products, which carry a fiscal mark and are in an excise warehouse, may be removed without payment of duty for the following purposes:

Provided that you obliterate the fiscal mark to our satisfaction and meet the requirements set out in Excise Notice 207: excise duty drawback. See section 11.2 of Excise Notice 207 for differences from a normal export in relation to Northern Ireland.

Manufacturers or importers who remove to home use specified tobacco products that do not carry a compliant fiscal mark will be liable to forfeiture of the products in question and to a civil penalty.

Packaging that does not comply with the fiscal mark specification will be non-compliant. The manufacturer or importer responsible for the non-compliant product will be liable to a civil penalty and the product in question will be liable to forfeiture.

It’s a criminal offence to possess, transport, display, sell, offer for sale or otherwise deal in unmarked products (that is, specified tobacco products that are required to carry a fiscal mark, but do not).

If you alter or overprint, or cause a mark to be altered or overprinted, you’ll be liable to a civil penalty and the product in question will be liable to forfeiture.

It’s a criminal offence for the manager of premises to suffer the premises to be used for the sale of unmarked specified tobacco products that are required to carry a mark.

The term ‘suffer’ requires actual or constructive knowledge that the activity is taking place but does not require active connivance. For example, if you manage premises such as a public house, club, shop and you turn a blind eye to the fact that unmarked specified tobacco product is being sold on those premises, you’ll be guilty of an offence.

In this context a person is a manager of premises if they are:

This means that a person who merely lets premises on a commercial basis and does not exercise day-to-day control over those premises will not be guilty of an offence.

If convicted of the offence, you’ll be liable to a fine and the court may also make an order prohibiting the use of the premises in question for the sale of tobacco products for a period of up to 6 months. Failure to comply with such an order is a criminal offence.

Imported specified tobacco products, intended for home use, which do not bear a fiscal mark applied before importation will be non-compliant with Regulation 22(3) of the Tobacco Products Regulations 2001. This contravention of the Regulations may attract civil penalties under sections 8E(1)-(3) of the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979.

If you receive unmarked product, which should bear a fiscal mark you should keep the consignment on your premises and immediately notify us. Details of how to contact us are given in paragraph 1.5 of this notice.

It’s your responsibility to ensure that your supplier understands the significance of the fiscal mark and ensures that any specified tobacco products which are consigned to you bear a compliant fiscal mark. It’s a criminal offence to possess, transport, display, sell, offer for sale or otherwise deal in unmarked tobacco products, which are required to carry a fiscal mark. If you’re a Registered consignee or Temporary Registered Consignee (Northern Ireland only), importing unmarked tobacco products, you could be committing such an offence since neither are permitted to hold tobacco products in duty-suspension.

The Isle of Man has introduced equivalent legislation to the UK on fiscal marking.

Specified tobacco products moving in duty-suspension to the Isle of Man must not bear a compliant UK fiscal mark.

Specified tobacco products moving in duty-suspension to the Isle of Man must comply with the relevant legislation in the Isle of Man.

UK duty paid specified tobacco products transported to the Isle of Man will already have been removed to home use in the UK and must, therefore, bear a compliant UK fiscal mark.

Specified tobacco products consigned in duty-suspension from the Isle of Man, for home use in the UK, must bear a compliant UK fiscal mark. The mark must have been applied before the goods enter the UK.

Duty paid specified tobacco products transported from the Isle of Man to the UK should bear a fiscal mark in conformity with Isle of Man legislation. Provided that they do bear such a fiscal mark and that the excise duty paid in the Isle of Man has not been and will not be repaid, remitted or drawn back the products may be transported and sold in the UK.

If you do not agree with the registration conditions set out in the registration letter, or any refusal to register premises, or the revocation of registration, you can ask for a review.

You have 3 options. Within 30 days you can:

You can also have a review and then appeal to tribunal if you disagree with the outcome. If you want to appeal you must write directly to the tribunal.

If you want us to review a decision, you must write to the person who issued the decision letter, within 30 days of the date of that letter.

Your request should set out clearly the full details of your case, the reasons why you disagree with us and provide any supporting documentation. You should also state what result you expect from our review.

If you do not want a review you may appeal to the independent tribunal. You need to send your appeal to the tribunal within 30 days of the date on the decision letter.

Get more information about reviews and appeals in:

There’s also information about how to appeal on the Tribunals Service website or by Telephone: 0845 223 8080.

If you do not agree with an assessment of Tobacco Products Duty you have the same options as described in paragraph 13.1 and follow the sections through to 13.5.

Annex 1 has the force of law

This section has the force of law under powers granted to the Commissioners by section 8D of the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979.

‘The mark’ in relation to the fiscal mark for tobacco products, denotes the whole of the mark; including the text and border of the rectangular box of the mark.

‘Cuboid packets’, in relation to cigarettes, denotes a packet having front, back and side surfaces which, when viewed face on, appear rectangular although the side edges may be rounded. The area of the front and back surfaces shall be calculated as a rectangle the width of which is the maximum width of the packet and the length of which is the maximum length of the packet.

‘Back surface’, in relation to cuboid packets of cigarettes and packets of hand-rolling tobacco, means the side opposite to the most visible surface of the packet. The ‘most visible surface’, in relation to a cuboid cigarette packet, means that surface of the packet which is, or is equal to, the largest surface and either:

‘External face’ in relation to packets of hand-rolling tobacco, means any surface of the packet which is visible without opening the packet.

‘Bottom third’, in relation to cuboid packets of cigarettes and packets of hand-rolling tobacco, means the bottom third of the packet, in relation to the orientation of any visible text or graphics, when the unopened packet is laid on its front or back surface and viewed from above.

3. The form the fiscal mark must take on packets of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco

Each cuboid packet of cigarettes or packets of hand-rolling tobacco must carry a mark in the following form:

4. Size and position requirements for rectangular packets of cigarettes In the case of cigarette packets, the mark must be positioned wholly and centred (horizontally and vertically) in the bottom third of the back surface of the packet and comply with the following specification:

5. Size and position requirements for packets of hand-rolling tobacco

For packets of hand-rolling tobacco the mark must comply with the following specification:

6. Size and position requirements for packets of hand rolling tobacco which cannot comply with section 5 above For packets of hand-rolling tobacco where the size and shape of the packet is such that the health warning on the packet is required to be placed where section 5 above requires the fiscal mark to be located, the mark must comply with the following alternative specification:

7. Colour of the fiscal mark The colour of the text and border of the fiscal mark must be black and the background colour, within the border of the mark, must be white.

Annex 2 has the force of law

This section has the force of law under powers granted to the Commissioners by section 8D of the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979.

‘The mark’ in relation to the fiscal mark for tobacco products, denotes the whole of the mark; including the text and border of the rectangular box of the mark.

‘Cuboid packets’, in relation to cigarettes, denotes a packet having front, back and side surfaces which, when viewed face on, appear rectangular although the side edges may be rounded. The area of the front and back surfaces shall be calculated as a rectangle the width of which is the maximum width of the packet and the length of which is the maximum length of the packet.

‘Cuboid slim packets’, definition as cuboid packets, but with a depth less than 20.5mm.

‘Back surface’, in relation to cuboid packets and cuboid slim packets of cigarettes means the side opposite to the most visible surface of the packet. The ‘most visible surface’, in relation to any cuboid cigarette packet, means that surface of the packet which is, or is equal to, the largest surface and either:

‘Front surface’, in relation to HRT pouches this means the side were the flap is located when closed.

‘External face’ in relation to packets of hand-rolling tobacco, means any surface of the packet which is visible without opening the packet.

‘Bottom third’, in relation to cuboid packets of cigarettes and packets of hand-rolling tobacco, means the bottom third of the packet, in relation to the orientation of any visible text or graphics, when the unopened packet is laid on its front or back surface and viewed from above.

3. The form the fiscal mark must take on packets of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco.

Each cuboid and cuboid slim packet of cigarettes or packet of hand-rolling tobacco must carry a mark in the following form:

4. Size and position requirements for all cuboid packets and slim cuboid packets of cigarettes

In the case of cuboid cigarette packets, the mark must be positioned wholly and centred (horizontally and vertically) in the bottom third of the back surface of the packet.

For Cuboid slim packets the mark must be positioned conspicuously in the bottom third of the back face of the packet.

In both cases the mark must comply with the following specification:

5. Size and position requirements for packets of hand-rolling tobacco

For packets of hand-rolling tobacco the mark must comply with the following specification:

6. Size and position requirements for packets of hand rolling tobacco which cannot comply with section 5 above

For packets of hand-rolling tobacco where the size and shape of the packet is such that the health warning on the packet is required to be placed where section 5 above requires the fiscal mark to be located, the mark must comply with the following alternative specification:

7. Colour of the fiscal mark

The colour of the text and border of the fiscal mark must be black and the background colour, within the border of the mark, must be white.

Your Charter explains what you can expect from us and what we expect from you. For more information go to Your Charter.

If you’ve any comments or suggestions to make about this notice, write to:

HMRC Indirect Tax Tobacco Team 3rd Floor Ralli Quays 3 Stanley Street Salford M60 9LA

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