Duty relief

The application is not a separate letter. The warehousekeeper claims relief by carrying the alcohol products received during a month into that month's duty return (section 63 (1) AlkStV). A confirmation of duty payment from the producer, the person liable or the seller must be attached, on the official form (section 63 (3) AlkStV). Without that evidence the condition that duty has demonstrably been paid is not met.

Beyond goods coming back into the tax warehouse there are further cases. Relief is also available where duty paid products in free circulation move to another member state (section 30 AlkStG). What counts there is evidence that duty was paid in the country of destination or that the goods were received into a tax warehouse there.

Timing decides the cash flow effect. Relief works against duty that has already arisen and been paid. Letting returns stand for weeks before they are stored and booked pushes the relief into a later return period, and the duty is financed out of the trader's own pocket until then.

The most common mistake: returns are put into the warehouse before it is clear whether duty was paid on them and by whom. Without the confirmation of duty payment the duty is lost, even though the goods are physically back in the tax warehouse. That evidence is obtained before delivery, not afterwards.

The second mistake is a bookkeeping one: the goods are taken back and sold on directly without being recorded as a receipt into the tax warehouse. The stock ledger entry the relief depends on is then missing (section 10 AlkStV), and the receipt cannot be evidenced during an audit.