Excise guidelines for the fuel industry

• This document incorporates revisions made since original publication. View its history and amending notices, if applicable.

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU

The information in this publication is current at 27 June 2025.

We are committed to providing you with accurate, consistent and clear information to help you understand your rights and entitlements and meet your obligations.

If you follow our information in this Guide and it turns out to be incorrect, or it is misleading and you make a mistake as a result, we must still apply the law correctly. If that means you owe us money, we must ask you to pay it but we will not charge you a penalty. Also, if you acted reasonably and in good faith, we will not charge you interest.

If you feel that this Guide does not fully cover your circumstances, or you are unsure how it applies to you, you can seek further assistance from us.

About this Guide

This Guide is intended to be a reference tool for the fuel industry to assist its members to meet their excise obligations. It contains information about the excise system and how it applies to fuel products that are manufactured or produced (hereafter the reference to 'manufacture' or 'manufactured' is a reference to 'manufactured or produced', 'manufacture or produce' or 'manufacture or production' having regard to the relevant context unless otherwise specified) in Australia.

The Guide will provide you with a broad outline of excise law and your compliance obligations – it does not cover every aspect of how excise law applies to every situation.

Throughout this Guide, you will find important notes (look for the exclamation symbol) that will help you with key information you should note.

You will also find 'more information' boxes (look for the right direction symbol) that will show any further steps you may need to take or supplementary information you may need to refer to.

The 'danger' notes (look for the danger symbol) give prominence to information that is critical to compliance. They suggest the highest level of urgency or facts you must comply with.

If this Guide does not fully cover your circumstances, seek help from us or a professional adviser. Contact us via:

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ATO Online Services

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phone 1300 137 290 , or

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write to us at

Australian Taxation Office
PO Box 3514
ALBURY NSW 2640

We will ordinarily respond to electronic requests within 28 business days and finalise private rulings within 28 days of receiving all necessary information. If we cannot respond within 28 days, we will contact you within 14 days to obtain more information or negotiate an extended response date.

TERMS WE USE

When we say 'you', we mean you as a member of the fuel industry who is either registered or wishes to register for excise.

Some technical terms used in this Guide may be new to you – some are defined in the legislation, others are not. These are indicated in quotation marks when first used and are explained at the end of that chapter.

The terms CEO, Collector, and Commissioner are all used in the legislation in reference to various officers. In most instances in this Guide we have not used these specific terms and simply refer to 'us' or 'we'.

Copyright notice

© Australian Taxation Office for the Commonwealth of Australia

You are free to copy, adapt, modify, transmit and distribute this material as you wish (but not in any way that suggests the ATO or the Commonwealth endorses you or any of your services or products).

References