6th August deadline: The rules have changed and HMRC has published guidance on what to do when goods arrive in GB without an import declaration

20th July 2021

This notification will be important for you if you have had any imports into the UK which have not been fully declared.

Since sending out this notice we have been contacted many times by concerned importers who realise there have a lot of imports that were delivered undeclared! In some cases this is going back to January.

Due to government relaxations a lot of importers faced arrival of the goods without any presentation to HMRC, most of you had an experience when the EU supplier just sent a truck without even notifying you. In this case we would file a full import declaration retrospectively and send you all clearance paperwork.

The rules have changed and HMRC has published guidance on what to do when goods arrive in GB without an import declaration.

Options available to the importer:

1. Submit a full import declaration within 1 month of the import. All import shipments which have arrived into UK from Jan 2021 must be declared before 6th of August.
2. Submit a supplementary declaration (that means that importer must be onboarded for CFSP).

Option 1 is preferred, but where not possible (e.g. too late) Option 2 must be used.

In both cases, the imports will be non-compliant and HMRC may apply civil penalties. Before applying civil penalties, HMRC will look at outstanding duty debts and repeated offences.

Since these declarations are non-compliant, PVA cannot be used. You must use a deferment account or FAS for VAT.

To be fully compliant with HMRC, please ensure that your import shipments are cleared within 24 hours after arrival into UK.

The full text can be found here.

 Acting quickly will save you money and a potential compliance audit from HMRC!

 Just to remind you that our services are very efficient and of course compliant, as you would expect form an AEO registered customs broker. We pre lodge all the declarations to ensure there are no delays at the ports and ensure you receive the correct documentation that you must retain in your office for HMRC compliance purposes for both imports and exports. We also send this documentation to your suppliers and hauliers so there is no chance of miss-communication or miss-understanding.

For your information we also keep electronic records here on your behalf for all import and export declarations done by us. We send you 1 invoice at the end of each month for all the import and export declarations we have done for you during that month which can be settled in one payment and we have clear lines for financial audit purposes.

For any companies, importing or exporting concerned about their compliance risk. The Sheffield International Trade Centre conducts Compliance audits which will highlight your non-compliant risk and set you on the right course.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the SITC team without any delay.

Email: international@scci.org.uk or call 0114 201 8888.