Spirited
The Uncomplicated Version
A Delivery Order (DO) should contain basic cask information (distillery, year, and cask information), signatures from the buyer and seller, and warehouse acknowledgement (this can be a signature on the DO or an acknowledgement via email). Note, that a complete DO means you’re moving a cask into your account, so be sure to have your own cask warehouse account before completing the DO (covered separately in another article).
Full article
7 September 2024 – In our previous article, we talked about the reasons why it’s important to have a Delivery Order (DO) but what’s exactly contained within a DO and how does it operate?
Here are three things to look out for with your Delivery Order:
- Cask Information
Basic information like the distillery name, age and the cask number should be contained in the DO. It’s common for distilleries to fill multiple similar casks at one time so a cask number helps differentiate one cask from another. Think of this as sort of a serial number for your cask.
- Seller and Buyer Signatures
This helps outline who is the current owner of the cask and who is going to be the new owner of the cask. This info should be time stamped and signatures obtained.
- Warehouse Acknowledgement
Warehouses have an obligation to report changes in cask ownership to the HM Revenue and Customs Department (HMRC). Behind the scenes, the warehouse should notify the HMRC to indicate a change in owners.
In many cases, the warehouse will require the new owner of the cask to have an existing storage account within the warehouse’s systems. After all, the warehouse will need an account to manage all things related to your cask (e.g. regauges, samples, billing) and to help maintain a cask audit.
But as a cask owner, what happens if you don’t have a warehouse account?
As a cask owner, you have two options with cask management and that includes having a Custodial Account (typically through your cask intermediary) or to open your own warehouse account for a self-managed account. There are pros and cons for both options and we cover some of these in our next article, The Pros and Cons of having your own Cask Warehouse Account.
Drop us a line here if you want to learn more about the transfer of casks and how to be protected.
