FTA Decision 1/2021 — Calculating the average retail selling price of excise goods

Factual summary

Sets how a Taxable Person calculates the Average Retail Selling Price of an Excise Good in the Market, one of the two prices used to find the designated retail selling price. Retail prices over the 12 months before the month of calculation are taken net of VAT and Excise Tax, weighted by units sold, and grossed up by the Excise Tax rate; sampling rules apply where there are more than two customers. Goods imported or produced only for export or for making another Excise Good use their import value, export price or price to the other producer instead.

What it means in practice Professional insight

Who: importers and producers of Excise Goods whose Excise Price depends on the designated retail selling price. What to check: the 12-month price data, the sample of at least 50% of sales volume and three customers, and whether the method is still accepted by the FTA after 1 January 2026.

Key provisions

• Art. 1(1)(a)–(b) For Clause 2 of Art. 14 of Cabinet Decision No. 52 of 2019, the Taxable Person identifies the different Retail Selling Prices charged by the retailer to consumers, within the supply chains it is party to, during the 12-month period preceding the month of the calculation, and deducts the VAT and Excise Tax included in each price to obtain the tax-exclusive Retail Selling Price.
• Art. 1(1)(c)–(f) Units sold at each price are multiplied by that price to give total market revenues for the previous 12 months; the total is divided by all units sold in that period; the result is multiplied by the applicable Excise Tax rate to give the notional Excise Tax; adding the two gives the Average Retail Selling Price in the Market, excluding VAT.
• Art. 1(2) Prices are identified as follows: where the Taxable Person deals with a maximum of two customers, all prices to those two customers; with more than two customers, a sample representing at least 50% of the total volume of sales and involving a minimum of three different customers; or, for Excise Goods not previously sold for retail in the State, the producer's recommended Selling Price.
• Art. 1(3) Where a Retail Selling Price relates to a period before Excise Tax applied to that Excise Good, only the VAT included in it is deducted.
• Art. 2(1)–(4) Excise Goods imported solely for export, or for producing a new Excise Good where the original good is not sold for retail in the State, use the import value (Customs value, insurance, freight and any Customs fees, excluding VAT) instead of the Average Retail Selling Price; goods produced in the State for export use their export sale price; goods produced in the State for producing a new Excise Good use the price designated for sale to the other producer before any deductions or offers.
• Art. 2(5)–(6) The Authority may request supporting evidence that the goods are not intended for, or were not sold in, retail in the State; if the intention changes after Excise Tax was declared so that the goods are to be sold for retail, the Taxable Person adjusts the Excise Price in the Tax Return for the Tax Period in which the change arose, using the Art. 1 calculation.
• Art. 3 Implemented as of its date of issuance.