How to file an advance notice and deposit a one-off guarantee

Report the estimated receipt date or import date of the products. Take into account the time required for processing and dispatching the order as well as the time it takes to transport and deliver the products to the consignee. The date of receipt must be within 90 days from the date when the advance notice was filed. The date cannot be in the past.

If you are filing the advance notice on paper, enter the date as ddmmyyyy.

Report whether you are a consignee receiving products or a distance seller who dispatches the products to Finland.

The consignee’s role (type) can be:

• temporary registered consignee - the products are moved under a duty suspension arrangement using the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS).
• distance buyer - private individuals wishing to make a distance purchase. This applies to situations where a private individual orders and receives products subject to EU-harmonised excise duty that have been released for consumption, i.e. alcohol or tobacco, and arranges the transport themselves.
• consignee of products subject to national excise duty - including private individuals wishing to make a distance purchase. For example, private individuals who order or receive soft drinks. Advance notices concerning beverage containers are also filed under this role.
• temporary certified consignee - products released for consumption are moved using the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS)

The consignor’s role (type) can be:

• temporary certified consignor - products released for consumption are moved using the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS).
• certified consignor - products released for consumption are moved using the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS). Read more: Certified consignor and temporary certified consignor in excise taxation

A distance seller is a seller in another EU country who sells products subject to excise duty to private individuals in Finland and arranges their delivery to Finland. The distance seller can deliver the products themselves or hire a delivery company to do it.

Note: If you have multiple roles of different types, file a separate notice for each role. You cannot select multiple consignee or seller types for a single notice.

Enter the name and address of the contact person.

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 movement of products subject to harmonised excise duty (alcohol, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and liquid energy products). The system concerns both duty-suspended products and products that have been released for consumption. For products released for consumption, excise duty has been paid in the country of dispatch.

Indicate whether the products in the consignment are drinkable alcohol products.

Report whether the consignor is a small wine producer. Products sent by a small wine producer are moved under the duty suspension arrangement but outside the EMCS and without an excise duty number. In this case, an agricultural document is used in the movement of the products.

If the products are moved under the EMCS (i.e. the products are received or imported commercially under a duty suspension arrangement), report the consignor’s excise duty number.

Ask the sender of the products for the excise duty number. You can check the validity of the number on the European Commission’s Seed Europa service.

Enter an identifier for the consignor. Enter the consignor’s VAT  number. If you do not know the consignor’s VAT number, you can enter another identifier, such as a foreign TIN or trade registration number.

You can check the validity of the VAT number on the European Commission’s e-service.

When you enter the consignor’s excise duty number, MyTax will automatically fill in the consignor’s other details. If the products are not moved under the EMCS and you do not enter an excise duty number, you must fill in the consignor’s details yourself.

Enter the product group and volume of the product that is to be received or imported. Check the product groups in the tax rate tables for each excise duty. Also check the volume unit from the table.

Enter the product volume of the alcohol or alcoholic beverage, as well as its percentage of alcohol content by volume as appropriate. 

Enter the retail price of the tobacco product, i.e. the price at which the company sells the product to customers in Finland, including all taxes and additional charges. If a company sells products subject to excise duty on tobacco to their customers in Finland, the company can freely determine the retail price.

If you order tobacco products from another EU country for a purpose other than commercial sales, such as for your own use, the retail price of the products is the same as the retail price of corresponding products in Finland. If no corresponding products are sold in Finland, enter the taxable value confirmed by the Tax Administration (available in Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish) as the retail price of the imported tobacco products. The same applies to other products that contain tobacco.

Report the product’s purpose of use, if you are receiving or importing alcohol or energy products from within the EU for industrial use and the products are not taxed in Finland but they must still be moved under the EMCS.

If the products are moved under the EMCS, indicate their EMCS product group. When you select the product group, in most cases MyTax automatically selects the corresponding EMCS product group. If the product in question is exempt from excise duty in Finland, your trading partner will give you a product code with 8 characters. Use this code to search for a corresponding EMCS product group in the table on tax.fi (available in Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish). You can see in MyTax which EMCS product groups the consignor has the right to dispatch.

A guarantee is required when you receive or import products subject to harmonised excise duty in the EU or act as distance seller for such products (dispatching products to Finland). Products subject to the harmonised duty include alcohol products, liquid fuels and most tobacco products.

The guarantee is not necessary if you receive, import or dispatch products that are subject to national excise duties. These include soft drinks, beverage containers and certain tobacco products.

In most cases, MyTax calculates the guarantee amount automatically. If you file the advance notice on paper, calculate the amount required as the guarantee and enter the sum on the paper form in euros. The amount of the guarantee is equal to the amount of the excise duty that is to be paid on the product. You can check the duty amounts in the tax rate tables for excise duties.

However, for some products the guarantee is determined by the purpose of use (e.g. xylene). The Tax Administration processes these notices separately. You will receive a notification on the amount of the guarantee later in MyTax. This notification will also be sent to you by post. If you have chosen to use Suomi.fi messages instead of receiving paper mail from the Tax Administration, you will only receive the notification in MyTax.

The one-off guarantee of excise duty is paid with a unique reference number and to the same Tax Administration bank account as value added tax. You can see the reference number and bank account number in MyTax. The payment will be displayed in MyTax in 1–2 business days.

Check the details and submit the notice.

If you submitted the advance notice in MyTax and no guarantee was deposited, you can cancel it within 14 days.