The EMCS: What to do

When you register for the relevant excise duty, you can get access to the EMCS via E-tax for businesses: Select Excise duties (Punktafgifter) and then EMCS.

Please note that businesses that are registered as temporary consignees also need to access the EMCS to sign for good upon receipt.

If you want to give your accountant or adviser access to report on your behalf, you can read more about how to do that here:

Authorise accountant or adviser to report information on behalf of the business.

If you want to integrate your business' own IT systems with the EMCS via the business-to-business (B2B) web service, you can find help in Danish in the Implementation guide for B2B web services.

Please note that stockists may supply harmonised goods subject to excise duties to diplomats as long they use the EMCS.

Before you set up a movement in the EMCS, you can check if the consignee is entitled to receive the goods. All EU excise businesses are registered with their excise number in a common database, SEED (System for Exchange of Excise Data).

You can use SEED to verify an excise number and find out whether it is valid at the time of your search. You can also see what types of goods the excise number is allowed to receive. In this way, you, as the consignor, can ensure that the consignee is eligible to receive the goods without duty or tax.

Search in SEED-on-Europa (europa.eu).

If the EMCS is unavailable, you should follow the emergency procedure when set up movements.

Read more in Danish about emergency procedures for reporting in the EMCS.

Technical issues

If you experience any technical issues with the EMCS, please send an email to servicedesk@toldst.dk, the Service Desk of the Danish Customs Agency (Toldstyrelsen). The email will be monitored from 07.00 until 20.00 on weekdays and at 10.00 and again at 14.00 on weekends and during holidays.

Please make sure that the email contains as much of the following information as possible:

• Business name and CVR no.
• Excise number
• Name and telephone number of contact person
• Description of the issue, and if there's a specific error message, take a screenshot of it and paste it into the email.
• ARC no. If there is a specific error message, take a screenshot of it and paste it into the email.

See operational status for customs systems and the EMCS. 

Call us on (+45) 72 22 28 10 for questions on technical issues or emergency procedures related to the EMCS.

The EMCS shouldn't be used for the movement of goods:

• between businesses in Denmark – however, the EMCS must be used if the transport takes place via another EU country.
• directly from Denmark to a third country, for example by ship to the UK or Russia. Read more at the Danish Customs Agency.
• directly from a third country to Denmark. Read more at the Danish Customs Agency.
• to EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) via another EU country if the goods (T2 goods which are cleared) are already subject to a customs transit scheme in Denmark.
• which are not in free circulation for customs purposes, i.e. duty-free goods (T1 goods), and which are as a result covered by a customs transit scheme.
• from small wine producers in the EU. Instead, your supplier must complete a simplified administrative document (e-SAD), which you can read more about in section E.A.1.8.2.8 in our Danish-language legal guide.
• which are carburettor fluid or certain lubricating oil products according to the Danish Mineral Oil Tax Act (Mineralolieafgiftsloven). Read more in Danish in section E.A.1.8.2.9 in our Danish-language legal guide.
• that don't need an accompanying document in the EMCS if it's a matter of export of taxed goods. This also applies even if the goods are exported via another EU country.