ITALIAN RETAILER WILLING TO RECEIVE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE FROM ANOTHER EU MEMBER STATE

Whether acting as restaurant, a supermarket, or a broker, the economic operator willing to be autonomous in buying and reselling foreign alcoholic beverages – received from another EU Member State – is required to have physical premises to use as a warehouse.

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In the presence of all the objective prerequisites of good conduct envisaged by the regulations, the warehouse will be then issued an excise code released by the Italian Customs authority (ADM). Depending on the operational needs, the authorization can be permanent or temporary, (referring to the delivery of a single consignment of goods).

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The status of Registered Consignee – and that of Certified Consignee to be added with the entry into force of EU Directive 262/2020 – is only limited to the receipt of products under excise duty suspension, categorically excluding other manufacturing and processing activities of/on the product , including the application of tax markings. It means that in case of spirit drinks (S200) and intermediate products (I000) , said tax markings must be applied in advance by the consignor.

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Let’s take a look at two specific cases:

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Given that in Italy the rate of excise duty on still and sparkling wines is zero, the Italian merchant who receives champagne from France does not need to carry out further fulfilments other than those referred to EMCS, either if excise duty was paid in France (1 cent/liter) or the product was dispatched under duty suspended status.

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Instead, if the Italian merchant wishes to receive cognac from the same French supplier, each bottle of cognac must be equipped with Italian tax mark and the excise duty owed must be paid the day following the receipt of the product.

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As mentioned, tax marks shall be applied before the shipment of the product from the EU consignor, whereby said Consignor has the qualification of Authorized Warehouse Keeper: this is the only EU position that the Italian law - Regulation adopted by Decree 153/2001 - authorizes to handle and apply tax marks.  At the moment, this limitation does not allow two figures considered by the EU Directive 262 /2020 neither to receive nor to apply tax marks on alcoholic beverages to be released for consumption on the Italian territory:

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• Certified Consignor for B2B sales between commercial operators (article 35)

• Seller/Consignor for distance sales to private individuals, B2C (article 44)

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Regardless of the type of products to be received, the Registered/Certified Consignees – as defined in art. 3 of the new Directive in force from the 13/02/2023 – is required to provide a guarantee equal to 100% of the excise duty owed in Italy, with effective payment of the excise duty within the day following the receipt of the product.

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With the receipt of the products at the place associated to the excise code, the products are considered released for consumption in Italy and ready for national sales.

 

In Italian law, those figures are described in articles number 8 and 8-bis of the Excise Act (TUA). Specifically for Italy, the Certified Consignor must be linked to one of the established figures of Registered Recipient and Authorized Depositary. Another Italian peculiarity will be related to the “additional controls” envisaged by the ADM note 569047 of 12/14/2022 - including the real payment of excise duty in Italy - which could cause delays in completing the EMCS procedure and the reimbursement process of excise duty already paid in the Member State of departure.