Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS)
The Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS) came into effect on 1 January 2011. The EMCS is an electronic system designed to capture information relating to the movement of excise goods in duty suspension (alcohol, tobacco and oil products) within the EU and replaces the paper Administrative Accompanying Document (AAD).
The EMCS connects over 150,000 businesses across the 27 EU member states and each member state is responsible for developing their own national system which links to other states through a central system maintained by the European Commission.
On 15 October 2012, HMRC will release an update to EMCS which includes new messages relating to Event Report ‘IE840’, an explanation on reason for shortage ‘IE871’ and Manual Closure ‘IE905’. The updated EMCS will also allow for the ability to split movements of energy products which have any transport mode code as well as allowing registered consignors to cancel electronic Administrative Document (eADs) under certain circumstances.