Stop paying duty on stock you have not sold yet.
CUSTOMS WAREHOUSING
A customs warehouse, or bonded warehouse, lets you store imported goods in the UK with duty and import VAT suspended. You pay only when goods are sold, and never at all if they are re-exported. We get you the HMRC authorisation and keep it running.
you re-export
goods can stay
suspended too
stack up for you
the procedures manual behind it
keep the authorisation safe
THE BUSINESS CASE
What could you keep in the business?
Move the sliders to see the estimated duty you could suspend under customs warehousing, and duty you would save with their eventual re-exports.
Duty you would not pay
£100,000
Never due, because goods re-exported from a customs warehouse do not enter UK free circulation.
A rough guide, not a quote. Assumes duty is never due on goods that leave the UK again. What you would actually save depends on your commodity codes, where the goods come from and how you trade.
HOW IT WORKS
What happens to the duty?
It's simpler than it sounds. Duty and import VAT are suspended on import to the UK, and only become payable when goods leave the warehouse for the UK market. If the goods are re-exported, no duty is ever payable in the UK on those goods.
Step 01
Goods arrive in the UK
Imported stock is entered to the customs warehousing procedure instead of being released to free circulation.
Nothing paidStep 02
Stock sits, duty suspended
Goods can stay indefinitely. No duty, no import VAT, no time pressure to sell inventory you have not found a buyer for.
Still nothing paidStep 03a
Sold into the UK
Duty and import VAT become due at the point the goods are discharged for UK sale, not months earlier.
Duty due nowStep 03b
Re-exported
Goods leaving the UK never enter free circulation, so UK duty is never due on them at all.
Never paidCHOOSING YOUR SETUP
Public or private warehouse?
It comes down to your volumes, whether you have suitable premises, and how much control you want. Have a look at both.
Someone else holds the authorisation
Your goods sit in a third party logistics provider's authorised facility. They hold the HMRC authorisation and the financial guarantee, so most of the paperwork is theirs, not yours.
Your premises, your authorisation
HMRC authorises your own site for duty suspended storage. You keep full control of handling and stock and pay nobody storage fees, but the compliance sits squarely with you.
HMRC treats a customs warehouse as high risk, because it is contains goods which are liable for import duty. If your digital stock records do not match the physical count during an unannounced visit, duty is deemed due on every discrepancy.
Revoked
what happens to the authorisation if records or security slip
WHERE IT GOES WRONG
The three failures HMRC finds most
Stock that does not reconcile
If the digital inventory does not match what is on the floor, HMRC deems the duty due on every discrepancy, usually with a penalty attached.
Security below the standard
CCTV, access logs and keeping duty paid stock physically apart from duty suspended stock all have to meet HMRC's standard. Fall short and the authorisation can be pulled.
Discharge without an audit trail
Everything leaving the warehouse has to tie back to a specific customs declaration. Without that trail, businesses can end up paying duty twice on the same goods.
HOW WE WORK
From first sums to a working warehouse
We are not handing you a report and wishing you luck. Everything below is work we do alongside you.
01
Working out if it is worth it
We go through your customs data and work out how much cash is tied up in stock sitting on shelves, and whether the saving is big enough to be worth the extra work. Sometimes it is not, and we say so.
02
Getting you authorised
We handle the HMRC submission, including the procedures manual that spells out how goods are tracked from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave. We also look at whether you need a Customs Comprehensive Guarantee, and whether you can get a waiver instead.
03
Systems and the warehouse itself
We help you get warehouse systems in place that log every movement properly, then walk the site with you to check the storage, labelling and separation of stock are what HMRC will expect to see.
04
Keeping it running
A customs warehouse is only as good as the records behind it. We keep the reporting, the audit trail and the stock reconciliation ticking over, so the authorisation is never the thing that trips you up.
NOT SURE WHICH PROCEDURE?
Customs warehousing, or something else?
Three procedures put duty on hold, and they are not swappable. Picking the wrong one is a compliance problem, not a technicality.
Use warehousing when
Goods are held for sale
Stock you are holding to sell, or storing for the long haul, where you want to hold off on duty until it sells, or skip it altogether on anything re-exported.
Use IP instead when
Goods will be processed
Inward Processing puts duty on hold for goods you bring in to manufacture, repair or work on before sending them back out.
Inward Processing Relief →Use TA instead when
Goods come back out unchanged
Temporary Admission covers goods that come in for something specific, a trade show or a project, then go back out exactly as they arrived.
Temporary Admission →Use Freeport instead when
You're inside a Freeport zone
If your site sits within one of the UK's 12 Freeport zones, you effectively get warehousing, processing and Temporary Admission in one, with no time limit and a simpler import procedure.
Freeports →WHAT IT COSTS
How we price the work
There are really two costs to talk about here: getting authorised, and running the warehouse once you are. We will be upfront about both.
Public or private
Type R needs no authorisation of your own, Type U means a full application
Systems in place
Whether your stock control is already up to scratch, or needs building
Sites in scope
One site or several, and how stock moves between them
The first conversation is free, and it is mostly us doing sums. If the numbers say a customs warehouse is not worth the hassle at your volumes, we will tell you, rather than sell you an authorisation you do not need.
If it does stack up, you get a fixed fee for the authorisation work, agreed before we start.
Before you ask
Frequently asked questions about Customs Warehousing
Have a question not covered here? Book a free consultation and we'll give you a straight answer, no sales pitch, no commitment required.
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There is no legal time limit in the UK, as long as the facility stays authorised and the records are kept up. That is one of the big advantages over Temporary Admission or Inward Processing, which both run to a clock
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A CCG is financial security covering the duty sitting suspended in your warehouse. Plenty of compliant businesses qualify for a waiver, which means no expensive bank backed bond. We look at whether you are likely to get one as part of the application.
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In everyday use, yes. Bonded warehouse is the older term and plenty of people in the trade still use it. HMRC calls it a customs warehouse. Excise warehousing is a different thing again, that one is for alcohol and tobacco.
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No. With a public customs warehouse your goods sit in someone else's authorised facility, and they hold the authorisation and the guarantee. It is the quickest way in, and often the sensible choice at lower volumes.
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They will check your records against what is actually on the floor. Anything that does not match, HMRC treats the duty as due. Keeping records straight is not box ticking here, it is the thing protecting all that suspended duty.
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Yes. The ongoing reconciliation, reporting and audit trail work is part of our customs compliance management service, and plenty of businesses take it alongside the authorisation itself.
Find out if a Customs Warehouse is worth it for you
Have a free chat with us. We will look at what you are actually paying in duty and how you trade, and tell you honestly whether it is worth doing.