HM Excise

His or Her Majesty's Excise refers to 'inland' duties levied on articles at the time of their manufacture. Excise duty was first raised in England in 1643. Like HM Customs (a far older branch of the revenue services), the Excise was administered by a board of commissioners who were accountable to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. While 'HM Revenue of Excise' was a phrase used in early legislation to refer to this form of duty, the body tasked with its collection and general administration was usually known as the Excise Office.

In 1849 the Board of Excise was merged with the Board of Stamps and Taxes to form a new department: the Inland Revenue. Sixty years later the Excise department was demerged from the Inland Revenue and amalgamated with HM Customs to form HM Customs and Excise (which was itself amalgamated with the Inland Revenue in 2005 to create HM Revenue and Customs).

Organisation

Following the example of HM Customs, the Board of Excise set up a network of administrative areas called 'collections' (each with its own collector). Unlike HM Customs, the Excise operated inland as well as on the coast: initially it had 39 collections in England (mostly corresponding with the English counties) and four in Wales; later its remit was extended to cover Scotland and Ireland as well. The collections were subdivided into districts (each overseen by a supervisor), which themselves had smaller subdivisions, known either as rides (if covered by an Excise officer on horseback) or divisions (also called footwalks), which were covered by an Excise officer on foot.

Personnel

Each Excise collector was required to tour his collection eight times a year, visiting each market town in turn in order to hold 'sittings' and receive revenue payments.