Latvia brings mobile fuel tanks into VID storage-tank register

A fuel user that buys unpackaged fuel wholesale for its own business needs must declare each storage tank with a capacity of 1 m3 or more in the Valsts ieņēmumu dienests (VID) electronic declaration system (EDS).VID The duty applies to a legal or natural person registered in the commercial register as a merchant or in the taxpayer register as a performer of economic activityVID, where that person uses fuel, except gas, for its own needs in the course of economic activityVID. From 1 January 2020VID, such a user may store wholesale unpackaged fuel bought for its own needs only in tanks that have been declared to VID and meet the applicable regulatory requirements, unless the rules governing excise-goods movement provide otherwiseVID.

The scope is no longer limited to stationary tanks.VID Previously only stacionārās tvertnes had to be declaredVID, and movable tanks (so-called kubi) intended only for fuel transport did not have to be declaredVID. That stationary-only limitation and the express cube exemption no longer applyVID, so a tank of 1 m3 or more used to store qualifying fuel must be declared whether it is stationary or mobileVID. A business that relied on the old cube exemption and stores wholesale unpackaged fuel for its own use in 1 m3 cubes must now treat those cubes as declarable storage tanks.VID

The filing is made in VID EDS under “Reģistri” – “Naftas produktu uzglabāšanas tvertņu reģistrs”, separately for each tank. The filing states the tank's location address, with room for additional location detail where needed; the tank number where the tank has one; the nominal volume; and the date from which the tank will be used, which is the register completion date or a future date, for example where the tank's user is changing. Where several users jointly use one tank, each user declares that tank and notes the joint use in the “Papildu informācija par tvertnes atrašanās vietu” field. Where a declared tank is no longer used, the register must be updated with the date until which the tank was used.

Tanks already listed in a VID izziņa on the right to purchase marked (marķēti) products are not declared a second time in the register.VID A holder of such an izziņa stores the marked products only in the places and tanks stated in the izziņa, and heating fuel marked red (“sarkanā” degviela) bought under that izziņa is therefore not re-declared, because it was already declared to VID when the izziņa was obtained. The current text does not state a separate rule for agricultural blue or green fuel tanks; it gives only the heating-fuel example and the general izziņa-listed-tank exemption.

Gas remains outside the declaration duty.VID The filing duty, the 1 m3 threshold, the per-tank EDS filing, the joint-use rule and the end-of-use update apply to other fuels used for the user's own business needs within the conditions above.

The legal basis is Ministru kabineta 2005. gada 30. augusta noteikumi Nr. 662 “Akcīzes preču aprites kārtība”VID, points 62.4, 62.5, 84 and 214, with izziņas issued under Ministru kabineta 2007. gada 31. jūlija noteikumi Nr. 525 “Kārtība, kādā atsevišķiem naftas produktiem piemēro samazinātu akcīzes nodokļa likmi vai atbrīvojumu no akcīzes nodokļa”.