Preparing an excise return is one part of the job. Being able to trace the stock movements, production activity and supporting records behind it matters just as much when those records are reviewed. This guide covers what the ATO asks excise licence holders to keep, why those records can drift apart as a distillery grows, and what good recordkeeping looks like.
This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Check your obligations with your adviser and the ATO.
The ATO’s guidance for excise licence holders says records should be kept for the period it advises — generally five years. It asks licence holders to keep:
Source: ATO, Record keeping as an excise licence holder, checked 5 October 2026.
Excise is triggered when goods are moved out of your licensed premises and delivered into the Australian market, consumed at the licensed premises, given away or donated, or used for tastings with retail customers or for samples (other than approved samples). Until one of those happens, stock can stay in bond with duty deferred.
If you settle under a periodic settlement permission, you lodge a return for each settlement period — even if nothing was delivered — through the ATO’s online services.
Source: ATO, Lodging and paying – excisable alcohol, checked 5 October 2026.
Eligible manufacturers can receive a remission of excise up to an annual cap — $400,000 from 1 July 2026. The remission is applied on your excise return, and the ATO asks manufacturers to keep records of how much they’ve applied so they don’t exceed the cap for the financial year.
Source: ATO, Remission scheme for alcohol manufacturers, checked 5 October 2026.
Records tend to be easiest to keep when everything happens in one place. As a distillery adds products, locations and sales channels, they’re more likely to end up spread out:
Each of these makes it slower to answer a straightforward question from your adviser or the ATO.
If you were asked to show the trail from a remission claim back through the finished product, the production run and the raw materials, how much of it could you produce from one place — and how long would it take?
These are good operational practices rather than ATO requirements in themselves, but they make the requirements easier to meet:
Qdos keeps raw material receipts, batch records, bonded and non-bonded stock movements, stocktakes, and dispatch and sales records in one system, with excise determined when stock is released from bond. You can run production in Qdos, or keep the production and maturation process you already use and manage bonded stock, excise, sales and fulfilment in Qdos.
That means the records your excise returns and remission claims rely on are consistent and easy to find when your adviser or the ATO asks. Lodging your returns and decisions about eligibility stay with you and your adviser.
Explore Qdos for whisky and spirits
Tell us how your production, bonded stock and sales fit together, and we’ll show you how Qdos would keep the records behind them in order. Request a demo
