Importing goods subject to excise duty using EMCS
The Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS) is a system for simplified and unified excise duty control within the EU.
Moving goods under tax deferral
Registered users must issue an e-AD i EMCS to execute such movements under tax deferral from one place of import to a clearing warehouse. Due to the deferral, the excise duty should be paid to the Swedish Tax Agency.
Electronic administrative documents, e-AD in EMCS, should also be used for imports and entirely national movements of alcohol products, as well as some tobacco and energy products. To issue an e-AD in EMCS you need approval from the Swedish Tax Agency as a registered consignor, and provide a moving deposit to the Swedish Tax Agency.
If you fail to issue an e-AD in EMCS or if you have not provided a moving deposit, the move is not considered to be under tax deferral. In such cases, the excise duty is paid to Swedish Customs.
You need an LRN number to issue an e-AD in EMCS
Prior to reporting the shipment for transition to free circulation and before the goods are moved under tax deferral, you are required to issue an e-AD in EMCS. An LRN number is required for this.
You need to acquire an LRN number in a manner that does not cause the goods to be released into free circulation. You can do this by creating and, if necessary, preparing the import declaration before submitting it to Swedish Customs.
Once you have received your LRN number you should establish an e-AD in EMCS. When establishing in e-AD, the shipment is assigned a unique administrative reference code, ARC, which is 21 characters long. A product post in e-AD should correspond to an item in the import declaration. It is also possible to issue a separate e-AD for each product post in the import declaration.
The reason why the e-AD must be created first is that the ARC number must be stated in the import declaration before the goods are released for free circulation. This shows that the registered consigner is responsible for the movement of the goods from the place of importation to the clearing house.
When e-AD has been issued in EMCS, the ARC number should be provided in the import declaration.
After establishing your e-AD, complete the import declaration with the ARC number in data element 12 01 000 000. Please note that the data element is available at both the main level and the goods item level.
In data element 12 01 000 000 – Previous document, enter the following information:
- The code ‘C651’ in data element 12 01 002 000 – Type
when EMCS is not available and the paper-based fallback system is used, enter the code ‘C658’. In these cases, there is no ARC number. - ARC-number in data element 12 01 001 000 – Reference number
The ARC-number is 21 caracters long an begins with the year and country code. - You specify which goods item in the e-AD the goods item in the customs declaration refers to in data element 12 01 007 000 – Goods item identifier. In cases where the information is provided at the main level, no goods item identifier is specified.
The goods must enter free circulation to be moved under a tax deferment
Once the import declaration has been supplemented with the ARC number, the import declaration can be submitted or the arrival of the goods reported.
Only once the import declaration has been submitted and the goods have been released, the goods can be moved under tax deferral from the place of import.