The tax rates for excisable goods within the EU are very different – an approximation of the tax burden is not yet possible. These major differences in excise duty force the customs authorities to regulate the otherwise free movement of goods in the European internal market.

The taxation of excise duty goods takes place according to the so-called country of destination principle. This means that the goods must be taxed only in the country in which it is consumed.

No checks are carried out at the internal borders of the EU Member States. Thus, a system has been created for the supervision of excise goods traffic, the basic element of which is a pan-European association of tax warehouses.

Suspension arrangement

Within the interconnected system, the excise goods may be transported untaxed between the tax warehouses. This applies as much to the transport of goods within Germany – but above all between the member states of the EU. In order to be able to transport excise duty goods between the Europe-wide tax warehouses untaxed, the so-called tax suspension procedure is used.

For the uniform and transparent documentation of transports special accompanying documents are mandatory. This includes above all the e-VD.

Registered Consignee

By way of derogation from the tax-free transport of the goods within the pan-European tax warehouse network system, there is also the possibility of receiving the excise goods as a so-called authorized consignee. Authorized recipients are mostly small companies, for whom the operation of a tax warehouse would not be economically reasonable. The excise duty arises in this case, when the registered recipient takes the excise goods into his business – that is: stores, or, umschlag.

However, goods already taxed in another Member State of the EU may also be part of intra-Community trade. The country of destination principle also applies to already taxed goods. However, in order to avoid double taxation, the trader will be reimbursed the excise duty already paid by the EU country of origin.

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