The Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Lithuania will not be able to fully launch EMCS on 13 February 2023. The delay concerns products on which excise duty is paid in the country of dispatch. Read the instructions on how to proceed when you send products subject to excise duty from Finland and when you receive products in Finland.
Changes to the EMCS system
EMCS, or the Excise Movement and Control System, is an electronic system for exchanging information between EU countries. EMCS is currently used for reporting and controlling the movement of products subject to harmonised excise duty (alcohol, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and liquid energy products) between EU Member States under the duty suspension arrangement.
EMCS is used by importers of alcohol and tobacco, keepers of tax warehouses and manufacturers or importers of liquid fuels.
EMCS expands to cover duty-paid products
In February 2023, EMCS will expand to include the movements of products subject to harmonised excise duty outside the duty suspension arrangement. The change concerns products for which excise duty is paid in the country of departure. The system is called the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS).
EMCS moves to MyTax – also EMCS APIs will be opened
The EMCS service moves to MyTax on 13 February 2023. From then on, the customer will have to report all movements of products subject to harmonised excise duty to the EMCS system in MyTax or via the API. However, the change does not concern transports within Finland. When products are moved within Finland, EMCS does not need to be used.
The new EMCS interfaces will be moved to production on 13 February 2023 at 8 am. Before this, API users must get certificates for the production environment. Customs’ interfaces will be closed on Friday 10 February at 3.30 pm. The fallback procedure is used during the service break.
The Notification Service API was moved to production on 24 January 2023. We advise you to subscribe to the EMCS notifications in advance. Generation of notifications begins on 13 February 2023.
It is advisable to register the software which uses EMCS interfaces without delay starting 18 January 2023 and build the API key processing into the software already at this stage. The API key will become mandatory alongside the certificate on 1 May 2023.
Paper SAAD documents can no longer be used
Customers that use a paper SAAD document in movements between EU Member States must switch to the use of e-documents on 13 February 2023. In future, the consignor will create an e-SAD in the EMCS system in MyTax instead of filling in a paper SAAD document. The system has different documents for movements of products released for consumption (e-SAD) and for movements of duty-suspended products (e-AD). However, products dispatched before 13 February 2023 may still be accompanied by a paper SAAD document.
New registrations
The change will mean new registrations to the EMCS system: certified consignors and consignees, and temporary certified consignors and consignees.
- You can register as a certified consignee as of 21 November 2022 if the excise duty for the products you import to Finland has been paid in another Member State. Importing must be a regular activity.
- You can register as a certified consignor as of 21 November 2022 if the excise duty for the products you dispatch from Finland to another Member State has been paid in Finland. Dispatching must be a regular activity.
- Temporary certified consignors and consignees are registered automatically as they submit an advance notice and pay a guarantee. In this connection, they are assigned a one-time excise duty number for a single consignment. The consignor does not need to pay a guarantee.
The new registrations enter into force on 13 February 2023 at the earliest.
The Suomi.fi authorisation for EMCS will change
As of 13 February 2023, the Suomi.fi authorisation for EMCS transactions is called ’Submitting notifications of movements of excise goods’. If you already have the current authorisation for using EMCS for movements of excise goods under duty suspension, you do not have to apply for a new authorisation.
You can use the new authorisation in the EMCS system and the future Vero API service for EMCS. On 13 February 2023, EMCS will be expanded to concern products for which the excise duty has already been paid in the country of dispatch. The new authorisation also covers these products, considered to have been ‘released for consumption’.
Read more:
Page last updated 2/13/2023