Duty suspension

Duty suspension is a property of the procedure, not of the goods. The same bottle of gin can sit duty suspended in the warehouse in the morning and travel duty paid on a truck in the afternoon. The status rests on two authorisations: an approved trader has to stand at each end of a movement (sections 13 to 16 AlkStG).

A movement under duty suspension is declared in EMCS and runs under a reference code, the ARC. It does not end when the pallets are set down but with the consignee's report of receipt. That report is due without delay and at the latest five working days after the movement ends (section 33 (1) AlkStV).

Once suspension ends, duty arises. For a tax warehouse that moment is the removal into free circulation, unless a further duty suspension arrangement follows (section 18 (2) no. 1 AlkStG). An export, by contrast, ends the suspension without German duty becoming payable (section 16 AlkStG).

The classic error is an excise number carried over from an earlier shipment that is no longer valid. EMCS rejects the draft, and the goods stay in the yard although the truck has already been booked.

The second error is the report of receipt that never gets filed. The movement stays open, the system sends a reminder, and sooner or later the main customs office asks. Anyone shipping regularly is better off reviewing open reference codes weekly than settling it in writing later.