Operators who wish to import or trade goods subject to excise duty within the EU while benefiting from a suspension of payment of excise duty must be registered:

• as an authorised warehousekeeper;
• or as a registered consignor or consignee.

Failing this, for one-off transactions, operators must register with the custom authorities in order to be authorised to act as a temporarily registered consignee.

Upon registration, operators receive an excise number which is needed to import, deliver or purchase goods subject to excise duty.

Operators who do not possess the necessary authorisations relating to excise duty may appoint a third-party operator who has the necessary authorisation to act on their behalf as a representative in excise duty matters.

Who is concerned

Authorised warehousekeeper

An 'authorised warehousekeeper' is a natural or legal person that is authorised, as part of their professional activities, to produce, process, hold or receive, in a tax warehouse, or to dispatch goods subject to excise duty under the suspension of excise duty regime.

Registered consignee

A 'registered consignee' is a natural or legal person who is authorised, as part of their professional activities, to receive goods subject to excise duty from another Member State under the suspension of excise duty regime. They are not authorised to hold, dispatch, produce or process this type of goods.
They may act as an intermediary between an authorised warehousekeeper established in another Member State (consignor of excise products) and an end customer established in Luxembourg (trader or individual person). In this case, they will act as a representative in matters of excise duty on behalf of the consignor.

Temporarily registered consignee

A business may be authorised to act as a temporarily registered consignee if it occasionally receives goods subject to excise duty. A maximum of 6 temporary authorisations will be granted per applicant per year. In this case, the business must pay the excise duty at the time of the intra-Community purchase.

Registered consignor

A natural or legal person may be authorised to act as a registered consignor to dispatch, under the suspension of excise duty regime, products subject to excise duty imported from a third country and already released for free circulation.

Prerequisites

To become an authorised warehousekeeper or registered consignor or consignee, the applicant commits to comply with the specific requirements related to this capacity and which are described in the information notice on the reception/dispatch of products subject to excise duty by the Customs and Excise Agency.

How to proceed

Authorised warehousekeeper / Registered consignee / Registered consignor

Application for authorisation

In order to obtain the status as an authorised warehousekeeper or registered consignee or consignor, applicants have to submit the following to the Customs and Excise Agency:

• either an application for authorisation - excise duty suspension regime (authorised warehousekeeper or registered consignee), electronically signed with a LuxTrust certificate;
• or an application for authorisation - excise duty suspension regime (authorised warehousekeeper or registered consignee), signed manually;
• or an application for authorisation - excise duty suspension regime (registered consignor), signed manually;

The application must be accompanied by the following documents (which must be scanned if the application is submitted electronically):

• a cadastral survey of the warehouse as well as blueprints of the warehouse (only in the case of a tax warehouse);
• the business permit;
• an extract from the trade register;
• a certificate of VAT registration from the Luxembourg Registration Duties, Estates and VAT Authority (Administration de l'enregistrement, des domaines et de la TVA);
• the company’s articles of association and the decision to appoint the company manager;
• the balance sheet for the previous calendar year or, in the case of newly created companies, the business plan;
• the signatory's proxy (to be provided subsequently to the collector of customs and excise duty);
• a domiciliation agreement (only for companies that have established their registered office with a domiciliation agent);
• a declaration in which the represented person instructs the applicant to act as tax representative and certification of the represented person's signature (only for the tax representative);
• a copy of the LuxTrust approval document (or proof that a LuxTrust application has been submitted).

In the case of an application submitted on paper, the manager of the company must state his or her full name and join:

• a copy of their identity card; or
• ensure their signature has been legalised by a public authority.

If the application is complete, the applicant receives a permanent excise number and the necessary status.

Obligations for authorised warehousekeepers

The authorised warehousekeeper must:

• deposit a guarantee in principle limited to 10% of the amount of excise duty applicable to the average inventory of excise products produced, processed and held in its tax warehouse;
• provide, either personally or jointly with the transporter, a guarantee valid throughout the whole of the EU and covering the excise duty applicable to the products circulating under the suspension regime; the collector sets the amount of this guarantee based on the volume of transactions;
• present the products following any requisition and submit to any checks or inventory checks;
• provide, either electronically or by post, any document requested by the customs authorities for the purpose of control (invoice registers, invoices, copies of letters, cashbooks, inventories and any books, registers, documents and correspondence, etc.);
• where applicable, present the collector with a power of attorney authorising their representative (e.g. fiduciary) to provide, either electronically or by post, the documents mentioned above in their possession;
• immediately inform the collector of any change concerning:
  • the structure of the company (articles of association, management, premises, address, place of receipt of goods, etc.);
  • its VAT registration number or its business permit;
• ensure that the receipt and dispatch registers as well as the stock accounts are kept in compliance with the provisions included in the specific conditions attached to its business permit;
• provide its excise number (LUACC), when submitting an order, to its supplier which must be licensed to operate as an authorised warehousekeeper by the authorities in its home country;
• respect the specific conditions of their authorisation relating to excise duty, in particular the electronic submission of the Report of Receipt (RoR);
• file a declaration of release for consumption within the set time frame and pay the duty owed.

Obligations for registered consignees

The registered consignee must:

• deposit a guarantee in principle limited to 10% of the amount of excise duty applicable to the average inventory of excise products produced, processed and held in its tax warehouse;
• present the products following any requisition and submit to any checks or inventory checks;
• provide, either electronically or by post, any document requested by the customs authorities for the purpose of control (invoice registers, invoices, copies of letters, cashbooks, inventories and any books, registers, documents and correspondence, etc.);
• where applicable, present the collector with a power of attorney authorising their representative (e.g. fiduciary) to provide, either electronically or by post, the documents mentioned above in their possession;
• immediately inform the collector of any change concerning:
  • the structure of the company (articles of association, management, premises, address, place of receipt of goods, etc.);
  • their VAT registration number or business permit;
• ensure that a receipt register is kept in compliance with the provisions included in the specific conditions attached to its business permit;
• provide its excise number (LUACC) when submitting an order to its supplier, which must be licensed to operate as an authorised warehouse keeper by the authorities in their home country;
• respect the specific conditions of their authorisation relating to excise duty, in particular the electronic submission of the Report of Receipt (RoR);
• file a declaration of release for consumption within the set time frame and pay the duty owed.

Obligations for registered consignors

The registered consignor has to:

• deposit a guarantee which must be equal to the amount of excise duty which applies to the products subject to excise duty sent under the suspension regime. The guarantee must be valid across the whole of the EU. It can be deposited jointly with the transporter;
• present the products following any requisition and submit to any checks or inventory checks;
• provide, either electronically or by post, any document requested by the customs authorities for the purpose of control (invoice registers, invoices, copies of letters, cashbooks, inventories and any books, registers, documents and correspondence, etc.);
• where applicable, present the collector with a power of attorney authorising their representative (e.g. fiduciary) to provide, either electronically or by post, the documents mentioned above in their possession;
• immediately inform the collector of any change concerning:
  • the structure of the company (articles of association, management, premises, address, place of receipt of goods, etc.);
  • their VAT registration number or business permit;
• keep a register of consignments and the stock account in accordance with the provisions stated in the special terms and conditions of the authorisation.

Temporarily registered consignee

Permit application

To obtain the status of temporarily registered consignee, the applicant must inform the collector of customs and excise duties of:

• the exact type, quantity and value of the goods to be imported;
• the name and address of the supplier and, where applicable, its excise number;

Based on this information, the Customs Office determines the amount of the guarantee covering the duties in question which must then be deposited either in cash or by bank transfer.

Moreover, applicants must deposit a surety of EUR 75 in order to guarantee the submission of the declaration of release for consumption AC4.

If the application is complete, the applicant receives:

• either a temporary excise number (for one consignment and for one product) as a temporarily registered consignee (suspension regime);
• or a certificate of guarantee (duty-paid regime).

Obligations for temporarily registered consignees

The temporarily registered consignee must:

• communicate their temporary excise number or a copy of the guarantee certificate to their supplier at the time of submitting the order;
• present the products following any requisition and submit to any checks;
• respect the specific conditions of their authorisation relating to excise duty, in particular: file a declaration of release for consumption within the set time frame and pay the duty owed.

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