Lodge an excise return and pay fuel excise duty

Who needs to lodge and pay fuel excise duty

You need to lodge an excise return and you may need to pay excise duty if you deliver excisable products into the Australian domestic market.

What triggers an obligation to lodge and pay

Activities that trigger an obligation to lodge an excise return and pay excise duty occur when excisable goods are:

• moved out of excise-licensed premises and delivered into the Australian domestic market
• used at the excise-licensed premises.

If you have a periodic settlement permission (PSP), your obligations to lodge an excise return and pay excise duty will differ.

How to lodge

You should lodge your excise return using ATO online services.

Lodging your excise return online means you can:

• quickly and easily lodge online without downloading a PDF form
• only see questions that are relevant to your return
• easily submit a nil return when you have no product details to report
• have your excise duty amounts automatically calculated
• use pre-filled tariff items, after your first online lodgment
• view your lodged returns, transaction history and future lodgment due dates.

How to access the online form

To access the form using online services:

• select Lodgments
• select Excise duty return
• select the type of return then Prepare
• complete all mandatory fields and review the information
• tick the Declaration box and select Submit.

For help when completing the online form, you can:

• hover over or click the (?) icon for quick tips or smart help
• click on the (?) help button on the right side of the screen for all Help topics.

If you need assistance to lodge online contact us.

Paying excise duty on excisable fuel and petroleum based products

If you have an obligation to lodge an excise return you need to:

• apply for Excise registration before lodging an excise return
• have a payment reference number (PRN).

You need to prepay your excise duty or apply to pay on a periodic settlement basis.

Excise duty is due at the same time as your excise return for all settlement periods (that is, weekly, monthly or quarterly).

To help you pay correctly, see:

• calculating fuel excise duty
• current excise duty rates
• options for how to pay.

Prepayment of excise duty

You must lodge your excise return and prepay excise duty before you deliver excisable goods into the Australian domestic market, unless you have a PSP.

Once we've received payment and approved your return, we'll issue you with a written delivery authority. This allows you to physically move the goods from the licensed premises and deliver them into the Australian domestic market.

To access your delivery authority using online services:

Online services for business

• select Communication
• select Secure mail
• navigate to the relevant mailbox
• click on the Delivery Authority/Excise return attachment and download the PDF document

To receive an email notification that your delivery authority has been issued, add an email address in the Notifications field at the bottom of the secure mail inbox.

Email notifications will always be sent from our trusted email address, Taxofficeportalmessagenotify@ato.gov.au

You can also access your delivery authority from the Excise duty return landing page:

• select Lodgments
• select Excise duty return
• select Pre-payment
• click on the Delivery authority link for the selected period.

Online services for agents

• select Communication
• select Communication History
• select Search.
• click on the Delivery authority link for the selected period.

Periodic settlement permission

A PSP allows you to:

• deliver excisable goods into the Australian domestic market over a specified period (settlement period)
• defer when you lodge your excise return and pay excise duty until a specified date.

For each settlement period (weekly, monthly or quarterly) you must:

• lodge an excise return detailing the deliveries you made during the settlement period
• pay excise duty on these excisable goods.

You must lodge a return for each settlement period, even if you haven't delivered any goods in that period.

When you can get a PSP

A PSP must be applied for using the approved application form. This may be done as part of the excise licensing process. As a PSP enables an entity to effectively defer lodgment and payment to a later date, we must consider several factors before deciding whether a PSP should be granted and whether a weekly, monthly or quarterly settlement period should be allowed.

Among other things, these considerations include your overall compliance with tax obligations, for example, lodgment and payment history.

Decisions to grant or refuse to grant a PSP, allow weekly, monthly or quarterly settlement periods, condition a permission, or take a financial security to ensure compliance with the permission are determined based on what we consider to be the risk to revenue of allowing an entity to defer the lodgment and payment of required excise duty.

Decisions in relation to PSPs are reviewable decisions and may be objected against.

If your licensed premises are covered by another entity's PSP, the other entity must lodge the excise return and pay the excise duty for goods they deliver into the Australian domestic market from your licensed premises.

For more information, see application for an excise periodic settlement permission.

Settlement period

For all settlement periods, payment of excise duty is due at the same time as your excise return.

Eligible for small business entity concessions

If you're eligible for small business entity concessions, you may be able to report and pay your excise obligations monthly or quarterly.

Under a monthly arrangement, we require you to report and pay excise duty by 4:00 pm on the 21st day of the month following delivery of the goods into the Australian domestic market.

For example, if you delivered goods into the Australian domestic market during September , you must report them in your September excise return. By 4:00 pm on 21 October , you must:

• lodge your September excise return
• pay the excise duty.

From 1 July 2023, businesses with an aggregated turnover of less than $50 million may be eligible to report and pay their excise obligations quarterly.

Under a quarterly arrangement, you need to report and pay excise duty:

• for a quarter ending on 31 March, 30 June or 30 September – by the 28th day after the end of the quarter
• for a quarter ending on 31 December – by the 28th day of the February after the end of the quarter.

Not eligible for small business entity concessions – weekly

If your business is not eligible for small business entity concessions and you:

• don't deal in transport of gaseous fuels, you can apply for a specific 7-day settlement period    
  • you must lodge your excise return and pay the excise duty by 4:00 pm on the first business day after the end of the settlement period
   
• deal in transport gaseous fuels, you can apply to us to defer reporting and paying excise duty on your transport gaseous fuels    
  • you must lodge your excise return and pay the excise duty by 4:00 pm on or before the sixth business day after the end of your nominated 7-day settlement period.