Excise guidelines for duty free shops

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About this guide

This guide is intended to be a reference tool for duty free shops to assist operators to meet their Excise obligations. It contains information about the excise system and how it applies to duty free shops.

The guide will provide you with a broad outline of excise law and your compliance obligations - it does not cover every aspect of how excise law applies to every situation.

Throughout this guide you will find important notes (look for the

 symbol) that will help you with key information you should note.

You will also find 'more information' boxes (look for the

 symbol) that will show any further steps you may need to take or supplementary information you may need to refer to.

The 'danger' notes (look for the

 symbol) give prominence to information that is critical to compliance. They suggest the highest level of urgency or facts you must comply with.

 If this guide does not fully cover your circumstances, please seek help from us or a professional adviser.

You can contact us by phone, fax or post - Excise

Phone our enquiry line on 1300 137 290 between 8.00am and 6.00pm, Monday to Friday.

Fax

Fax us at 1300 130 916.

Post

Write to us at

Australian Taxation Office
PO Box 3514
ALBURY NSW 2640

TERMS WE USE

When we say you , we mean you as a duty free shop operator who is either registered or wishes to register for excise.

Some technical terms used in this guide may be new to you - some are defined in the legislation, others are not. They are shown in bold when first used and are explained at the end of that chapter.

The terms CEO, Collector, and Commissioner are all used in the legislation in reference to various officers. In most instances in this guide we have not used these specific terms and simply refer to 'us' or 'we'.

OUR COMMITMENT

The information in this publication is current at July 2015.

This publication is an expression of the Commissioner's opinion on the operation of the Excise Act 1901 and Excise Tariff Act 1921 as they relate to duty free shops (excise legislation). This publication is not a 'public ruling' for the purposes of Division 358 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 .

Since we regularly revise our publications to take account of any changes to the law, you should make sure this edition is the latest. The easiest way to do this is by checking for a more recent version on our website at www.ato.gov.au

Copyright notice

Australian Taxation Office for the Commonwealth of Australia

You are free to copy, adapt, modify, transmit and distribute material on this website as you wish (but not in any way that suggests the ATO or the Commonwealth endorses you or any of your services or products).

Excise guidelines for duty free shops
  Date: Version:
  1 July 2006 Original document
You are here 1 July 2015 Updated document
  7 January 2022 Updated document
  1 July 2024 Current document

Copyright notice

© Australian Taxation Office for the Commonwealth of Australia

You are free to copy, adapt, modify, transmit and distribute material on this website as you wish (but not in any way that suggests the ATO or the Commonwealth endorses you or any of your services or products).