Alcohol tax; application for refund, remission, or allowance.
If alcohol products are proven to have been taxed, you may be eligible for a refund, remission, or allowance of alcohol tax under certain circumstances.
Description
Alcohol tax relief is available if it can be shown that the alcohol products were taxed but are later put to a use that justifies relief. Relief is available in the following cases:
- You transport the products commercially to other European member states where they are taxed according to the regulations applicable there.
- You take the products into a tax warehouse. A tax warehouse is a place approved by the main customs office where the products may be manufactured, processed, stored, received or dispatched. Example: you take goods back into your facility because they were rejected by a consignee due to defects.
Tax relief may mean:
- The tax you have already incurred but not yet paid will be waived. You can apply for such relief only if you are also the tax debtor for the goods in question.
- The tax already paid will be refunded to you. You can also apply for a refund only if you are the person liable to pay the tax on the goods in question.
- You are not the tax debtor who has already paid the tax, but another tax debtor has paid the tax debt for the goods. Upon application, the tax will be refunded to you.
Prerequisites
- You prove that the alcohol products have been taxed.
- In case of taking back goods taxed by yourself: You immediately record the receipt in your tax warehouse in the warehouse accounting system.
Procedure
You must apply for the tax relief in writing:
- If you had taxed the goods yourself, apply for the remission or refund of the tax in your monthly tax return. In it, fill in the relief declaration and the attachments listed there.
- If you include goods in your tax warehouse that someone else had taxed, you can apply for a refund using the form "Confirmation of taxation".
- Fill out the respective form and, if necessary, the attachments completely and send them by mail to your main customs office.
- The main customs office will check the relief.
- You will receive a notice with the result of your application.
The main customs office responsible is the one from whose district you operate your business or, if you do not operate a business, the one in whose district you are domiciled. If your business is operated from a location outside Germany or if you do not have a place of residence in Germany, the main customs office in whose district you first appear for tax purposes is locally responsible.
Processing time
- 3 to 10 days, depending on the complexity of the case
Required documents
-
Required Documents
-
You apply for tax relief by recording the transactions eligible for relief in the "Monthly tax return/discharge return for alcohol products (Form 1272)" and the "Annex to the monthly tax return/discharge return for alcohol products" (Form 1278).
-
Both when you take taxed alcohol products into your tax warehouse in Germany and when you export taxed alcohol products to other European member states, the following proofs are required:
- If you have not taxed the goods yourself: in addition, the "confirmation of taxation" (form 2735)
- in the case of alcohol for drinking purposes: if applicable, the declaration of the producer that the alcohol supplied does not contain tax-privileged settlement alcohol.
-
When transporting taxed alcohol products to other European member states, the following additional forms must be submitted or evidence provided:
- If you wish to claim a tax relief for taxed excisable alcohol products transported to other Member States on a more than occasional basis, notify the competent main customs office in advance by means of the "Notification for claiming a tax relief for the movement of excisable goods in free circulation to other Member States" (Form 2756). Attach the "Assortment List - Annex to Form 2756" (Form 2757) to this notification.
- the third copy of the simplified accompanying document certified by the consignee in accordance with the so-called system directive,
- the taxation certificate of the other Member State.
Remedy
- Objection.
Detailed information on how to file an objection can be found in your tax assessment. - Action before the Tax Court
Links to more information
Status:09.05.2023
Responsible for editing:Bundesministerium der Finanzen
- Online transactions, Bavaria-wide
- Online transactions, locally limited
- Form, Bavaria-wide
- Form, locally limited
- Prefillable Form, Bavaria-wide
- Legal bases, Bavaria-wide
- Legal bases, locally limited
- Fees, Bavaria-wide
- Fees, locally limited