Tobacco
New penalties for duty fraud
New penalties for illegally selling cigarettes, alcohol and fuel come into effect from 1 April. The new ‘wrongdoing penalties’ will apply where someone:
- Handles goods on which excise duty has neither been paid nor deferred
- Uses a product in a way that means more excise duty should have been paid
- Supplies a product at a lower rate of excise duty knowing that it will be used in a way that means a higher rate of duty should be paid.
If someone is caught, the new penalty will be a percentage of the potential lost revenue to the Exchequer.
Penalties will range from 10 per cent of the possible lost revenue to 100 per cent. In addition, anyone running a business selling goods that have excise duty on them can be penalised if an employee or advisor commits a "wrongdoing". The penalty can be avoided if the business can show that it has taken reasonable care to avoid this by, for example, setting up systems and procedures to prevent the wrongdoing.
For a fact sheet on the new penalties please go to:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/new-penalties/wrongdoing-penalty.pdf
Legislation
On 1st October 2007 the law regarding the selling of tobacco products underwent significant change.
It is now illegal to sell tobacco to anyone under the age of 18. Although this brings tobacco in line with alcohol, there remain some significant differences between the law on selling alcohol and the law on selling tobacco, which we have explained below:
Proxy Purchasing
It is not an offence for an adult customer to buy tobacco on behalf of a young person.
Attempts to Buy Tobacco
Unlike with alcohol, the underage person making the purchase is not committing an offence. Neither is it illegal for young people to smoke.
Selling Tobacco
It is not a legal requirement for the person who is selling tobacco to be over 18, nor is it required to supervise the sale of tobacco by those under 18. However, ACS strongly recommend that retailers adopt the same policy as for alcohol sales and supervise in such instances. We advise this course of action because of due diligence, if an underage sale does take place.