Excise Stock Movement Guide

In December 2020, the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) released an Excise Stock Movement Guide for Warehouse Keepers who are Registered for Excise Tax.

The purpose of the Guide is to assist Warehouse Keepers (WHK) of the various Designated Zones (DZ) within the UAE to understand their responsibilities in respect of:

• The process of declaring the Excise Goods held in their DZs as of 01 January 2020;

• Compliance with the requirements for the layout, icons and symbols used in the declaration form that must be submitted.

It is the responsibility of the WHK to declare the Excise Goods held in the DZs he manages as of 01 January 2021. The WHK will have the opportunity to do so between the period of 01 January 2021 to 31 January 2021 and must do so only once for each Tax Registration Number (TRN) holder.

The form which must be completed in this regard is referred to as the EX204 – Opening Stock Declaration (the “Form”).

Section 3.1 of the Guide provides a high-level step by step description of the requirements to complete and submit the form on the FTA’s website.

Once the Form has been submitted by the WHK, the TRN holder for whom the Form was submitted will be required to Approve or Reject the opening stock declared in the Form by the WHK. The Approval/Rejection process is dealt with step by step in Section 3.3 of the Guide.

The Guide further provides details on how to review the status of the Form once it has been submitted to the TRN holder:

• “Drafted’ means the Form is still in draft format or has already been submitted by the WHK;
• “Pending” means the Form has been submitted but must still be approved;
• “Approved” means the TRN holder has finally approved the Form;
• “Rejected” means the TRN holder has rejected the Form.

The relevant TRN holder must approve the Form by no later than 31 January 2021 as Forms cannot be submitted or approved after this date.

The Guide further provides the steps which must be taken when requesting the FTA to add products to the published FTA Excise Goods List.  This is done by selecting the ‘Request to add products to the published FTA list’ option, whereupon the user will be directed to the ‘Product Registration Portal’. The user may then request to add or edit a product. The FTA will then review the particulars of the product to determine whether it should be added to the existing list.