HM Revenue & Customs

How long will I have to wait for 'Approval' to remove the goods?

Excise warehousing legislation requires that the authorised warehouse keeper must either have paid the duty to HMRC or have accounted for the duty in accordance with the law regulating the deferment of duty BEFORE the goods leave the approved warehouse premises. If you remove goods from the warehouse before you have complied with either of these two obligations HMRC will consider such removals as illegal removals from warehouse and the warehouse keeper will be liable for the duty due.

If you submit your Warrant online, the goods can be released once the corresponding Warrants are shown as 'Approved' on the appropriate 'W5D detail' and 'W6D detail' pages. You will usually receive a response within a few minutes but in exceptional circumstances this may take up to 24 hours.

If you do not receive an 'Approval' within 24 hours please contact the Online Services Helpdesk.