Alcohol Duty Rates and Relief

25th July, 2023

At the Spring Budget 2023, the Chancellor confirmed changes to the structure of the Alcohol Duty system, creating standardised tax bands for all alcoholic products based on alcohol by volume (ABV). These changes take effect on August 1st 2023.

For any pre-lodged declarations, or declarations you make through CDS on or after 1 August 2023, you may have to change the information you include for:

• Tax Types for Data Element 4/3 of the Customs Declaration Service.

• National additional codes to declare with Data Element 6/17 of the Customs Declaration Service.

What you need to do for declarations on or after 1 August 2023

1. Make sure the new 300 series tax type is used in declarations. Declarations using codes from the 400 series will be rejected on CDS.

2. Use the new X300 series for national additional codes. Any declarations using codes from the X400 series will be rejected on CDS.

The exception to the above changes is for supplementary declarations. Those with an accept date prior to 1st August 2023 will be allowed to use the 400 series and X400 codes until they are cleared.