Excise duty - where is it settled?

The excise duty applies to certain categories of products, which include, among others: energy products, electricity, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products. Excise duty, like value added tax, is an indirect tax. However, unlike most of the levies paid in tax offices or municipalities - the authorities responsible for excise duty are the heads of customs offices and the directors of customs chambers. Determining the jurisdiction of the local tax authorities is determined by the general rule, but there are special cases for which the law provides for different guidelines.

Local jurisdiction of tax authorities for excise duty purposes - general rules

Pursuant to Art. 14 sec.3 of the Excise Duty Act, as a rule, the local jurisdiction of tax authorities is determined on the basis of the place of performance of activities or the occurrence of facts that are subject to taxation.

Example 1.

The XYZ company is based in Katowice, and has a tax warehouse in Opole. In the above case, the competent authorities are the Head of the Customs Office in Opole and the Director of the Customs Chamber in Opole, as the company carries out taxable activities in Opole.

Special cases of determining the local jurisdiction of tax authorities

In the case of activities subject to excise duty occurring within the area of ​​local jurisdiction of two or more tax authorities, the local jurisdiction is determined separately:

• for legal persons, organizational units without legal personality,
• for natural persons.

In the first case, local jurisdiction is determined on the basis of the address of the registered office, in the second - the address of residence.

Example 2.

The ABC company is based in Warsaw. It also has a tax warehouse in Wrocław and Katowice. How should the locality be determined? Since ABC operates under the jurisdiction of two different tax authorities, local jurisdiction must be determined in accordance with Art. 14 sec. 4 pts 1, i.e. according to the seat of the enterprise. In the case of ABC, the seat is in Warsaw, so the tax authorities competent for it will be: the Head of the Customs Office in Warsaw and the Director of the Customs Chamber in Warsaw.

The legislator also provided for special methods of determining local jurisdiction in the following situations:

• determining the acceptable standards for losses of excise goods or the acceptable standards for the consumption of excise goods,
• movement of excise goods under the excise duty suspension arrangement,
• notifying the head of the customs office by the entity managing the tax warehouse about the intention to remove excise goods from the tax warehouse.

In the above cases, the local jurisdiction is determined due to the place of performance of activities subject to excise duty or the occurrence of facts related to the performance of the above activities.

In the event of the encumbrance or the release of the comprehensive guarantee from the encumbrance, the local jurisdiction of the tax authorities is determined on the basis of the place of the transaction or the occurrence of the facts. On the other hand, when the obligation expires due to payment - the authority competent to record the release of the security from the charge is considered to be the head of the customs office to whom the taxpayer submits the tax declaration.

The entrepreneur applying for excise duty reimbursement should apply to the head of the customs office and the director of the customs chamber where the excise duty has been settled and paid.

If the local jurisdiction of the tax authorities cannot be determined on the basis of the rules set out in the Excise Duty Act (Article 14 (3-5, 7-9)), the competent tax authority is the Head of the Customs Office in Warsaw and the Director of the Customs Chamber in Warsaw.

Determining the place of settlement of excise duty is different than for most taxes. The Excise Duty Act presents the general principle of determining the local jurisdiction of the tax authorities. However, it is not possible to set uniform rules for all cases, therefore, a number of exceptions have been provided for, for which separate methods of determining the place of competent tax authorities have been established.