Commercial goods in baggage and postponed VAT accounting

I'm a small business and I want to ' take back control' of importing goods into the UK from the EU.I'm importing small items from suppliers in italy and the value of the items is relatively low in cost and weight. Ordering from different suppliers is time consuming and complex and 50% of the time there is a problem with delivery from delays and I've even been charged duty on goods of EU origin that were not delivered. My plan is to have the goods delivered to my in-laws in france. This way the supplier in italy just sends me an invoice, I pay and the goods are delivered. I' will then go to france, make my declarations and produce my own commercial invoice and make a full declaration before travelling. HMRC are typically wishy washy with their information on this, can I do this? I'm planning on using Customs Clear and this works with postponed vat accounting, do I need a duty deferment account? How do I get one? Any help gratefully appreciated

Hi,

You can contact the Customs and International trade team with your query.

Imports and exports: general enquiries

You can also email cds.operations@hmrc.gov.uk with any Movement Referance Number of declarations.

Guidance for Duty deferment can be found here:

Apply for an account to defer duty payments when you import or release goods into Great Britain

Thank you.

 

Hi pelletsys I am not an employee of HMRC but have practical experience importing and exporting. This change of routing may have some additional expenses and obligations to you. If your supplier is delivering within the EU your supplier will almost certainly have to charge you local VAT assuming neither you or your in-laws are VAT registered in France. When your supplier export directly out of the EU they can zero rate the export. As well as UK import declarations you will also need to check what the French export declaration requirements are.

Many thanks oldtimer. They supply to me exworks so VAT is not charged. I arrange the transport to my 'warehousing' in France then only transport when goods are collated. They are then transported to UK from France under one commercial invoice I create. It may take a month for goods to arrive from Italy to UK, but this is no different from the courier service and if I go and collect myself it will arrive complete and with no surprises or additional charges.

Unfortunately collecting goods yourself is very different to goods being dispatched via parcel courier from an EU VAT perspective. Shipping goods from Italy to France isn’t considered an export from the EU. I suppose it’s your suppliers problem if they don’t charge you Italian VAT, but do not be surprised if they do charge when delivering to a non VAT registered person in France. Best of luck