Excise Duty

The term excise duty comprises taxes on ethyl alcohol, beer, wine and intermediates, mineral oils and tobacco products. Generally, natural or legal persons who produce or trade the above-mentioned products are also excise-duty payers. However, obligations resulting from Act on Excise Duty may impact also on persons who just purchase these products with excise duty already included in their acquisition price or exempt from the excise duty. Unfortunately, such persons quite often do not realise or even acknowledge the impact and requirements of the Act on Excise Duty on their companies. Taking this into account, the financial consequences of long-term neglect of legal duties might be even more serious. The obligations and requirements stipulated by the Act on Excise Duty may also apply to those who store or transport a large volume of products subject to excise duty; are not able to prove the taxing of products purchased with excise duty already included in their acquisition price; purchase products exempt from excise duty; or mix minerals oils, etc.

The sanctions for the violation of regulations governing excise duty are not immaterial and are imposed even if only administrative obligations have been breached. Imposing sanctions may cause significant difficulties in future when attempting to obtain any licence concerning trading products subject to excise duty. In some cases sanctions imposed prevent a licence from being obtained at all. This would prevent the purchase of products exempt from excise duty in the future.