- In the case of a product being illegally removed from a tax warehouse, the warehouse owner is required to pay excise duty on the product.
- This was established by the CJEU in a September 7, 2023 judgment.
- The case involved an Italian company that owned a tax warehouse and sent shipments of mineral oils under the excise duty suspension system to a Slovenian company.
- The Italian customs authorities discovered that 161 of the accompanying administrative documents were false and concluded that the irregularities occurred on Italian territory, making it the responsibility of the Italian state to collect the excise duty.
- The CJEU ruled that the warehouse owner is exempt from excise duty only if two conditions are met: a “gap” occurs within the suspension system and the loss results from random factors or force majeure.
- The CJEU emphasized that the owner of the warehouse is the entity obliged to pay excise tax in the event of irregularities or violations resulting in the liability of this tax, regardless of fault.
- Therefore, if a product is illegally removed from a warehouse in violation of the law under the suspension system, the warehouse owner must pay excise duty, even if it was the result of an illegal act that cannot be associated with the owner of the warehouse and can only be attributed to a third party.
Source MDDP
