Guides / UK spirits to Poland · Updated 30 September 2026

Exporting UK gin, whisky and beer to Poland: excise, stamps and duty

Selling UK gin, whisky or beer to a Polish buyer means closing a UK excise movement, meeting Polish excise and tax-stamp rules, and proving origin for zero duty. Here is the sequence, and who owns each step.

This guide is also available in Polish.

Two excise systems, one consignment

When a UK distillery, brewery or distributor sells gin, whisky or beer to a buyer in Poland, the goods leave one excise regime and enter another. On the UK side the question is how to get the goods out without paying UK excise duty. On the Polish side the question is who pays Polish excise, who applies the Polish tax stamps and when. Customs duty and import VAT sit on top of both. Getting any one of these wrong usually means goods held at the border or a duty bill nobody budgeted for.

This guide walks through the chain in the order the goods move. It is written for exporters, but the Polish importer carries most of the obligations at destination, so both sides should read it together.

Step 1: leaving the UK under duty suspension

If your stock sits in a UK excise warehouse, HMRC's Excise Notice 197 allows a warehousekeeper to remove goods for export in duty suspension, meaning UK excise is not paid on goods that leave the country. Two conditions from the notice matter in practice:

• A valid movement guarantee must be provided and recorded on the electronic administrative document (eAD) for every movement in duty suspension.
• The movement from the UK tax warehouse to the place where the goods leave UK territory must be controlled on EMCS, the Excise Movement and Control System. Submitting the eAD before dispatch produces a unique administrative reference code (ARC), which must travel with the goods.

The movement is closed by a report of export on EMCS confirming that the goods have left the UK. Until that report is in, the warehousekeeper has not discharged the movement, so make sure your haulier or export agent knows the ARC and that someone owns the closing step.

The export customs declaration is made separately in the UK customs system (CDS), and both exporter and importer need an EORI number for their respective side. If the load will cross the EU under a transit document before clearance in Poland, see our guide to T1 transit from the UK to the EU.

Step 2: customs duty depends on origin

The UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) allows zero tariff only for goods that meet its rules of origin. GOV.UK explains that goods must be wholly obtained or sufficiently worked or processed in the preference country, and that the exporter must be able to prove origin for the claim to stand.

For spirits and beer this is a real question, not a formality. A whisky distilled in Scotland is a different case from a gin rectified in the UK from imported neutral spirit, or a product bottled in the UK from bulk imported elsewhere. Check the product-specific rule for your heading before promising a customer a duty-free landed cost. Where the rule is not met, or origin cannot be evidenced, the EU's standard third-country duty applies at import in Poland instead of the preferential rate.

• Confirm the commodity code of each product before quoting.
• Check the TCA origin rule for that code against your recipe and suppliers.
• Keep supplier declarations and production records that support the claim.
• Agree who makes the origin claim on the invoice and in what form.

Step 3: Polish excise on import

Poland's tax portal, podatki.gov.pl, lists the import of excise goods as a taxable event and states that the excise obligation on import arises on the day the customs debt arises. In other words, for goods released for free circulation in Poland, excise is triggered at the same moment as customs duty, and the Polish importer is the taxpayer.

The same page describes exceptions, including where imported goods are entered into a Polish tax warehouse on release and placed under the excise duty suspension procedure there, or where they are dispatched onward in duty suspension from the place of import by a registered consignor. These routes let a Polish importer defer excise until the goods leave the warehouse, but they require Polish excise authorisations that the importer, not the UK exporter, must hold.

Step 4: Polish tax stamps (znaki akcyzy)

Poland requires tax stamps on alcoholic beverages. According to podatki.gov.pl, goods subject to this obligation may not be imported without being properly marked, unless they are placed under excise duty suspension (or entered into a free zone or customs warehouse) and marked before that suspension ends or before release for sale in Poland outside suspension.

Three practical consequences for a UK exporter:

• The stamps belong to the Polish side. Matters concerning excise stamps are handled by the Polish head of the tax office and the director of the tax administration chamber competent for the address of the entity obliged to apply them. A UK company does not order them for itself.
• They can be applied in the UK. The portal states that importers may pass stamps to an entity based outside Poland so that it can apply them to unit packaging of goods that will be imported. Many exporters therefore receive stamps from their Polish customer and apply them on the bottling line before dispatch.
• Stamps cannot be traded. They cannot be sold, lent or passed to other businesses, so stamps sent for one importer's goods must be used only on that importer's shipments, and unused ones should be accounted for with that importer.

Build stamp lead time into the order. If the importer has not obtained stamps when the pallet is ready, you either wait or the goods must go into a Polish tax warehouse and be marked there.

Step 5: import VAT

Goods bought from outside the EU are generally subject to VAT at the point of import, as the European Commission's Your Europe portal explains, and a business making taxable sales can usually deduct that VAT later in its VAT return. In Poland this is paid by, or on behalf of, the importer, alongside the customs declaration. It is a cash-flow item for the buyer rather than a final cost, but it must be funded at clearance.

Who does what

If a customs agent lodges the Polish import declaration under direct representation, the importer remains liable for the debt; under indirect representation the agent is jointly liable. For the Polish-side detail on stamps, rates and licences, read this explainer on importing UK alcohol into Poland with tax stamps, and check current figures with the Polish tax administration before quoting.

Common failure points

• Goods dispatched without Polish stamps and no tax warehouse arranged to receive them.
• A UK EMCS movement left open because nobody submitted the report of export.
• Zero duty assumed for a product that does not meet the TCA origin rule.
• The importer's excise status unclear until the lorry is already on its way.

Settle each point in writing with the buyer before the first shipment; repeat loads are then routine. If you are unsure whether you need outside help, our page on whether you need a customs broker sets out the options.

Related guides

• Shipping alcohol and tobacco between GB and the EU: excise guide for businesses

• Northern Ireland and the Windsor Framework: a guide for traders

• Importing Polish vodka and beer as a UK wholesaler

Sources

• Excise Notice 197: receipt into and removal from an excise warehouse (GOV.UK)
• Check your goods meet the rules of origin (GOV.UK)
• Akcyza: informacje podstawowe (podatki.gov.pl)
• Znaki akcyzy (podatki.gov.pl)
• Cross-border VAT (Your Europe, europa.eu)

General information, not legal, tax or customs advice. Rules change; confirm current requirements on gov.uk or with a registered agent before you ship.