0 the former name for the UK government department that collects taxes, especially on goods leaving or entering the country
1 the previous name for the British government’s customs department, responsible for collecting taxes on goods brought into the country. It was combined with the Inland Revenue in 2005 to become part of HM Revenue & Customs.
For it was clear that in spite of all that had been done by the Customs and Excise, by the Admiralty and the military, they had not succeeded in obtaining the desired effect.
In every federal system in the world the control of Customs and Excise has been retained by the central authority.
In practice, nearly the whole Federal tax revenue is derived from Customs and Excise.
There the Commonwealth, besides having exclusive control of Customs and Excise, has general powers of taxation concurrently with the States, though in practice Commonwealth taxation is almost entirely confined to Customs and Excise.
To retain Imperial control of Customs and Excise, while crediting the Irish proceeds to Ireland, is in itself equivalent to making three-quarters of Irish tax revenue take the form of an annual money grant fixed by Great Britain.