Do You Need to Sign up to the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme?
Posted on Thu 17th Sep 2015 at 14:12
According to HMRC, the public purse loses £1.3 billion a year through alcohol duty fraud, where ‘duty unpaid’ goods are inserted into wholesale and retail supply chains.
To combat this, and ensure legitimate businesses can flourish, HMRC have introduced the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme. This scheme applies to everyone who sells, or arranges the sale, or alcohol to other businesses at or after the point at which excise duty becomes due. It’s a broad scheme that even covers auctioneers, so do check carefully whether or not you need to register. If you are eligible for the scheme, you’ll need to apply between 1 October and 31 December this year. After this point HMRC will evaluate the applications and decide whether or not applicants are ‘fit and proper’ to carry on trading. There are many criteria to meet to pass the evaluation, all centred around proving you have no record of illicit activity. Businesses who don’t pass the test will have their right to wholesale alcohol removed. Penalties are also being introduced for those who trade without approval. Applications will be assessed from 1 January 2016 to April 2017, and the above document sets out full details of the whole process, including whether or not you will receive a visit from HMRC. From April 2017, there will also be an online database of approved wholesalers, allowing retailers to do their due diligence quicker and easier. There will be an onus on retailers to ensure that they have checked their suppliers are signed up to the scheme.