Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences
  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.

This article is more than 1 year old

HMRC beer duty bungle leaves breweries struggling to pay online

Shiny new web form can't cope with Budget month

The UK's taxmen have scuppered several piss-ups after brewers discovered the Government Gateway's online duty calculator can't calculate the latest beer tax hikes.

"It would have been sensible if, prior to announcing the change, the Chancellor established whether HMRC and the businesses impacted were capable of administering it," Colin Bocking of the Crouch Vale Brewery told The Register.

Following the overnight March hike in beer duty, announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond, brewers tried to use HMRC's shiny new web-based EX46 beer duty form. However, bungling taxmen failed to allow the form to handle reporting periods that begin in the middle of the month – and were forced to take the web version offline.

"HMRC's own website will not accept mid-month dates as valid Beer Duty return period start/end dates. Hence it rejects the form," Richard Naisby of the Milton Brewery told us.

"I now learn that we are all going to have to submit paper returns. I only hope that they find a way of promulgating this instantly to the 1,000-plus brewers in the UK, because there are fines for late submissions and the deadline looms."

HMRC web monkeys have now pulled the web beer duty form offline. "The online form EX46 will not be available for March returns, please use the paper or print and post forms," says the EX46 page on gov.uk.

In spite of contacting HMRC earlier this month to ask about it, Naisby said the taxman had stonewalled him: "They have so far failed to respond with anything other than a holding email. Today is the last day to submit valid paper returns, and for a lot of breweries the last post will have been already collected."

Beer duty is calculated monthly. In Budget months breweries must complete two duty returns; one for the old rate and one for the new rate, which normally comes into force at midnight on the day of the Chancellor's Budget address to Parliament.

The tax is paid monthly by brewers to HMRC and has, until recently, been a paper-only form.

We asked HMRC whether it will extend the deadline for breweries thanks to the web cockup. We will update this story if we hear back from them. ®

 

Similar topics

Similar topics

Similar topics

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like