Customs and Excise

Counter hours:

Monday to Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

Privacy Notice

The Treasury collects information about you in order to administer taxation and carry out other functions for which it is responsible (eg. National Insurance, customs and excise duties, property rates, social security benefits, state pensions and legal aid etc.), and for the detection and prevention of crime.

Whilst that information will primarily be provided by you, where the law allows we may also get information about you from other organisations, or give information about you to them. This may be to check the accuracy of the information provided, prevent or detect crime or protect public funds in other ways. These organisations may include other government departments, the police and other agencies.

To find out more about how we collect and use personal information, contact any of our offices or visit our website.

Important updates

To receive important news from Customs and Excise, including regular updates of changes to UN/EU sanctions, and to import, export and trade controls, subscribe to the RSS feed for Customs and Excise news releases.

The UK government has published a number of technical notices which explain the changes that would apply if the UK leaves the EU without a deal on 29 March 2019. These notices cover a range of topics including:

• Customs - Trading with the EU if there’s no Brexit deal
• Tariffs – Classifying your goods in the UK Trade Tariff if there’s no Brexit deal
• VAT – VAT for businesses if there’s no Brexit deal

Links to these notices can be found on the Isle of Man Government website technical notices.

Value Added Tax: Guidance on the temporary reduced rate of VAT for hospitality, holiday accommodation and attractions

Further information on the temporary reduced rate of 5% VAT for the hospitality industry, holiday accommodation and on admission charges to attractions announced yesterday has now been released.

A reduced rate of 5% for holiday accommodation already exists in the Isle of Man.

Details of the measures can be found in the following publications or by contacting the Advice Centre on 648130 or at customs@gov.im :

Revenue and Customs Brief 10 (2020): temporary reduced rate of VAT for hospitality, holiday accommodation and attractions.

VAT on admission charges to attractions

VAT Notice 709/1: Catering, takeaway food

VAT Notice 701/14: Food Products

Detailed guidance on sanctions, export and trade control licensing, and proliferation

The Customs and Excise Division publishes detailed guidance about how UN and EU trade and financial sanctions affect the Island, as well as on export controls (including on the export of cultural goods), trade control licensing of trafficking and brokering activities, trade-based money laundering, proliferation and proliferation financing.

Imported vehicles

When vehicles are imported from outside the UK and Isle of Man, Customs and Excise must be satisfied that any VAT etc is secured before it can be registered and licensed for use on the road.  More details can be found in Notice NOVA 3 MAN (guide to procedures), which can be found in the section containing Public Notices.

Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (AWRS)

From April 2017, trade buyers who purchase alcohol from wholesalers with the aim of selling it on to their own customers should, as part of their own due diligence processes, check that the wholesaler is registered with the Isle of Man Treasury or HMRC, to ensure that the wholesaler they are purchasing from has been approved.  Since 1 April 2016, alcohol wholesalers have been required to be registered.  For more details see Notice 2001 MAN in the section containing Public Notices.

Machine Games Duty

Machine Games Duty came into force on the Isle of Man on 1 February 2013.