Pay Alcohol Duty

You must pay the Alcohol Duty shown on your online return by the 25th of the month. This means that any payments you send us must have cleared by this date. You can make more than one payment, as long as we receive the full amount due by the 25th of the month.

If the deadline is on a weekend or bank holiday, make sure your payment reaches HMRC by the end of the previous working day.

If you do not pay by the deadline, you’ll be charged late payment interest and may also need to pay a penalty.

You need your Alcohol Duty return reference number starting with an X. This reference will always be made up of 12 numbers and 2 characters (for example, XA123456789012).

You can find this on your submitted return for the accounting period.

If your payment has paid the wrong tax bill, you can contact alcohol duties to ask for your payment to be moved.

You may need your 15-digit alcoholic products producer approval (APPA) ID. The APPA ID is made up of 5 letters and 10 numbers (for example, XMADP0123459789).

You can pay online using one of the following methods:

Online services may be slow during busy times. Check if there are any problems with this service.

You can pay by approving a payment through your online bank account by selecting the ‘pay by bank account’ option.

You will be directed to sign in to your online or mobile banking account to approve your payment.

You will need to have your online banking details to hand to pay this way.

The payment is usually instant but can sometimes take up to 2 hours to show in your bank account.

From 1 March 2025 you’ll need to use the Manage your Alcohol Duty service to set up a new Direct Debit.

You’ll need the Government Gateway user ID and password you used when you registered for the service.

You must pay in a different way if you are making a payment of more than £20 million.