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Presumption of guilt - you'll say it doesn't work that way. Unfortunately, in tax law, the taxpayer is presumed to be guilty of breaching the tax law unless he proves otherwise. The only question … is whether, even if proven not guilty, the taxpayer will not have to pay the tax. In a recent judgment, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) clarified whether the owner of an excise warehouse (whose guilt has not been proven) will have to pay the suspended taxes (in this case almost €3 million) in a case where the evidence of the completion of the formalities has been falsified and where the goods have been transported to an unknown destination. The clarifications are important not only for the owners of excise warehouses, but also for all users of suspended tax regimes - transit, customs warehousing, temporary admission for processing and others - in order to better understand, assess and manage the risks involved. The CJEU has also clarified when goods are considered "lost" and no tax is due.

Editors' note: In this article, Mr Rowbotham, author of numerous books on trade and logistics topics, shares some parts of the book he is currently working on. Topics covered: Introduction to … domestic duties, excise duty and the UK due diligence requirements, for both domestic and import purposes. This is the continuation of the articles "The risk challenge of indirect tax - customs (Part I)” and "The risk challenge of indirect tax - VAT (Part II)".

An excellent article published in CCRM about one year ago reviewed the main import taxes in Brazil, the EU and Ukraine and the means and basis of calculation. The article demonstrated that, in … some cases, the import taxes exceed the value of the goods themselves, meaning that the taxes are more than 100%. I may comment that, in my view, the State of Israel is kind of a pioneer in this field. In several sectors, Israel imposes very high import taxes, especially on passenger cars, where the taxes exceed the value of a car.

Knowing how provisions of one or another customs and tax legislation are applied, protects business from financial and time losses intended for the resolution of disputes in courts. In this review … of the judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union, we draw attention to the aspects related to excise duty and VAT debt for goods illegally imported into the EU from the third countries - whether it is extinguished together with the import duty debt.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) examined a case, the goal of which was to clarify the tariff position that covers a runny and golden-brown product with a strong smell of vanilla, … consisting of approximately 85% ethanol, 10% water, 4.8% dry residue and having an average vanilla content of 0.5% (the Goods), and whether the Goods of such composition shall be exempt from excise duty on alcohol. The CJEU had to clarify whether the Goods are classified as vegetable extracts, extracted oleoresins or a mixture thereof. It was also necessary to comment on the interpretation of ‘flavouring’, which is not defined in either the Combined Nomenclature (CN) or Council Directive 92/83/EEC of 19 October 1992 on the harmonization of the structures of excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages (Directive 92/83).

Collection of import taxes is one of the main tasks of customs. What are the import taxes in various countries? What is the basis of their calculation? In this article, we overview the taxes … in Brazil, the EU, and Ukraine. The provided examples of imported goods reveal that, in some cases, the amount of import taxes might exceed the value of the goods themselves. Therefore, the advice for importers is to check the amounts of import duties payable before purchasing goods abroad.

The judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union has answered the question of whether goods made partly of tobacco and other materials should be subject to excise duty on tobacco in … its entirety or only in part of the composition of the tobacco as one of the consisting substances.

The system of sanctions for the violations, related to declaration and payment of import taxes, is currently not harmonized within the European Union (EU). Therefore, the article reviews laws … of the Republic of Bulgaria (as the EU Member State), defining such penalties and highlights the importance of voluntary disclosure of offence/ violation or mistake by the taxpayer to tax authorities for the application of legal responsibility.

The alcoholic drinks sector has seen much product innovation in recent years. Some of this product innovation has been to tariff engineer products that can avail of the lower excise rates associated … with fermented beverages relative to spirituous beverages. Following a series of landmark court cases, there is now extensive case law in place giving instruction as to how to classify these products.