Excise movement and control system (EMCS) updates
From January 2011 businesses must use a new electronic system designed to capture information relating to the movement of excise goods in duty suspension (alcohol, tobacco and oil products) within the EU. The system is known as the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS) and will replace the current paper Administrative Accompanying Document (AAD).
The EMCS will connect 150,000 businesses across the 27 EU member states. Each member state is responsible for developing their own national system which will link to other states through a central system maintained by the European Commission.
In the UK and other EU member states the EMCS has been partly available since 1 April 2010. However by 31 December 2010 all EU Member States must provide a system to submit and discharge movements online. This means that from 1 January 2011, all UK traders dispatching and/or receiving duty suspended excise goods to and from the EU must use EMCS. There will also be further enhancements to the EMCS to be introduced from 1 January 2012.
The registration and enrolment pages for EMCS can be found using HMRC’s online services page.