If you are approved under the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (AWRS) then you will need to be aware of a change to the list of Items and records to be kept and preserved by law.
From 18th September 2018, in the case of an item that is prepared or maintained but is not issued or received by the intended recipient, it must now be preserved. A very common example of this would be where an invoice is prepared but not issued due to it containing an error. This invoice must now be preserved and marked accordingly.
Approved wholesalers are legally obliged to keep records for a period of 6 years.
A full list can be found in Annex A of the guidance but a general summary of the records which must be maintained include:
- an invoice
- a credit note
- a debit note
- a statement of account
- a record relating to an importation or to an exportation
- daily record of payments to suppliers and of receipts from customers
- a journal or ledger
- a profit and loss account, trading account, management account, management report or balance sheet
- an internal or external auditor’s report
- any other record maintained for a trading or business purpose
Additionally, as an approved wholesaler, you are also required to keep:
- copies of delivery documents, accessible to HMRC on-site
- name and URN of suppliers
- an auditable stock control system – this could include invoices, credit notes or other records that allow stock to be identified
- details of any premises used for storage
If you are concerned that your records maybe putting your approval at risk please contact Altion Law on 01908 414990 to speak to one of our AWRS experts.
