Making an import supplementary declaration

Guide

Last updated 2 February 2023

You’ll need to make a supplementary declaration after you’ve either made:

Who can submit

If you’re bringing goods that are not controlled into Great Britain, you may be able to declare your goods by entering them in your records without getting authorisation in advance, and make supplementary declarations up to 175 days after the date the goods were imported if you bring goods:

  • from free circulation in Ireland (including goods that started their movement in Northern Ireland) into free circulation in Great Britain
  • that need to be declared from Northern Ireland (including goods that started their movement in Ireland) into free circulation in Great Britain

If you brought goods into Great Britain from the EU in 2021

If you brought goods into Great Britain from the EU between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021, you must contact HMRC if both:

  • you chose to delay making a declaration for those goods
  • you have not yet made a supplementary declaration for those goods

You must tell HMRC about late declarations as soon as possible. If you voluntarily tell HMRC about declarations not submitted on time, they can help you get it right in future.

When to submit

A supplementary declaration is not needed when your goods are being declared to customs warehousing.

You can submit your supplementary declaration once either:

You must submit your supplementary declaration by the following deadlines.

If you brought goods into Great Britain

Your supplementary declaration must be sent and accepted by the 4th working day of the following month.

If you brought goods into Northern Ireland

Your supplementary declaration must be sent and accepted by the 10th calendar day of the following month.

You can continue to submit your supplementary declaration by the 4th working day of the following month.

How to submit

You can submit your declaration electronically to HMRC.

Your declaration will need to include:

You also need to give the:

  • consignee and consignor

  • type, amount and packaging of your goods

  • transport methods and costs

  • currencies and valuation methods

  • certificates and licences

Find out the boxes you need to complete on your declaration in the Customs Declaration Service.

You can submit declarations individually or in batches, and you can submit more than one supplementary declaration for a single simplified declaration.

You can submit less supplementary declarations by combining those with the same header and item level data into a single declaration. This is called aggregation and you must get approval from your authorising customs officer before you do this.

After you submit

When your supplementary declaration is accepted, HMRC will send a customs response message giving a calculation of what you owe. Payment will be taken from your deferment account on the 15th day of the following month.

You’ll also need to submit a final supplementary declaration.

HMRC may ask you to send supporting documents for a customs check to clear your goods - find out more information about Clearing goods entering, leaving or transiting the UK.

Find out more about what to do if you have missed the deadline for submitting your supplementary declaration.

Amend or cancel a declaration

Find out what to do if you need to amend or cancel a declaration.

If you do not pay the right amount

Find out more information about if you underpay import or export duties and who is responsible for the debt.

If you have overpaid customs duty you can apply for a refund - find out more information about refunds and waivers on customs debt by HMRC.