Oils deferment returns gain precise midday-to-midnight accounting period

Revenue traders preparing hydrocarbon-oils deferment returns work to a newly precise accounting period: from midday on the 15th day of each month to midnight on the 14th day of the following monthGOV, with directions in Excise Notice 179 paragraph 10.6 to be strictly observed. The previous day-based framing — the 15th to the 14th — left the boundary hours unstated; the revised page settles them. Excise Notice 179 confirms the same window for excise duty on fuel delivered ex-warehouse to home use, with payment on the last business day of the latter month, and directs warehousekeepers to run stock accounts from the 15th to month-end and the 1st to the 14th around it.

Two return-formality requirements fall away. Where a return needed continuation sheets, each sheet was consecutively numbered with totals carried forward and the signature given on the sheet bearing the month's total; and where duplicate returns were prepared, each copy had to be signed unless it was a carbon copy. Both paragraphs are removed. In their place the page points to Excise Notice 179 paragraph 11.6 for who may sign duty declarations and the requirements for authorised signatoriesGOV — so traders now look to the Notice, not this page, for the signing rules. The Notice position is that declarations such as form HO10 are the responsibility of the proprietor or partner, or of a director or the company secretary for an incorporated company; the signatory must hold a responsible position such as accountant or manager, with authority on form C&E2 or company letterhead incorporating a specimen signature.

The page also drops the local-printing instruction for form HO65GOV, the summary sheet and claim form for refunds on hydrocarbon-oil deliveries to approved MoD (Navy) oil fuel depots, US Forces, US AFFES and USNX, which was said to be used too little to justify national printing. Other records required by this part of the manual continue to be maintained for each calendar month or such other period as HMRC may allow, and commercial-records retention follows Excise Notice 179 part 13, which details how traders keep in their records the information previously held on official return forms. Together the changes tidy the page into a signpost: the period is stated to the hour, signing lives in the Notice, and records live in traders' own commercial systems.

Legal basis: Excise Notice 179, paragraphs 10.6, 11.6 and part 13.