Alcohol, tobacco and mineral oils carry excise duty, a tax that is often far larger than the import duty. Pay it the moment goods arrive and you tie up a lot of cash in stock you haven't sold. The Dutch answer is the accijnsgoederenplaats (AGP), the excise warehouse, where excise goods sit with the duty suspended — due only when the goods leave the place.
What an AGP is
An AGP is a customs-licensed location for excise goods. The permit comes in four forms: production of mineral oils, production of tobacco, production of alcohol products, and storage of excise goods. The storage permit is the one a warehouse holds: it lets you keep excise goods — alcoholic beverages, for instance — under excise suspension. No excise is due while the goods are in the AGP; it becomes due only when they are removed for the home market. Re-export, or a transfer to another AGP, keeps the suspension intact.
This is not the same as a bonded (customs) warehouse. A customs warehouse suspends import duty and import VAT on non-Union goods; an AGP suspends excise duty on excise goods. A consignment of imported wine can touch both: cleared for free circulation but placed in an AGP so the excise still waits.
Moving excise goods: the e-AD and EMCS
Excise goods move under suspension on an e-AD (electronic administrative document), handled through EMCS (the Excise Movement and Control System), the EU-wide system that tracks excise movements. Before the goods ship, the sender registers a draft e-AD in EMCS. When the data check out, the system registers it and assigns an ARC (Administrative Reference Code) of 21 characters — the reference that follows the consignment until the receiving AGP confirms receipt and the movement is discharged.
The e-AD is what keeps the suspension legal across the move. Without it, excise goods leaving an AGP are treated as released for consumption, and the duty falls due.
Why one roof matters
An AGP is only as useful as the people running the paperwork around it. Our customs declarants sit on the same site as the warehouse, so the team that stores your alcohol also draws up the e-AD, registers it in EMCS and discharges the inbound movements. Storage, the excise document and the customs clearance are one desk, not three companies emailing each other. The wider warehouse offering — bonded storage, consolidation, value-added work — is on Warehousing.
How Nexport Logistics handles it
We hold the AGP storage permit, store alcoholic beverages under excise suspension, and our declarants draw up and manage the e-AD movements in EMCS alongside your Customs clearance and your import. Storing or moving excise goods? Email info@nexportlogistics.nl.
Official sources: Belastingdienst — Accijnsgoederen opslaan (AGP) · Douane — EMCS. Related: Warehousing · Customs · Importing Into The Netherlands