Guidance

General information about customs inland pre-clearance checks

Updated 13 April 2022

We’ve given you this factsheet because we’ve started a customs inland pre-clearance check. Keep it safe — you may need to refer to it during our check.

We do not carry out these checks over the phone.

We may ask you to give us information or documents to help with the check.

If you need help

If you have any health or personal circumstances that may make it difficult for you to deal with this check, tell the officer that’s contacted you. We’ll help you in whatever way we can. For more details, go to www.gov.uk/get-help-hmrc-extra-support.

You can also ask someone else to deal with us on your behalf, for example, a professional adviser, friend or relative. We may however still need to talk or write to you directly about some things. If we need to write to you, we’ll send a copy of our letter to the person you’ve asked us to deal with. If we need to talk to you, they can be with you when we do, if you prefer.

About a customs inland pre-clearance check

We carry out pre-clearance checks to make sure that all matters relating to your customs declarations are correct before we clear the goods for release. These checks may include:

• an examination of your declaration and supporting documents
• an examination of the goods
• sampling of the goods

If we need to follow up these checks with any post-clearance checks, this will involve a visit to your business or premises.

More information about post-clearance compliance checks can be found in factsheet CC/FS1g, ‘General information about compliance checks and international trade matters’.

For more guidance, go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘when we select your goods for inland pre-clearance checks’.

During the compliance check

We’ll tell you when and where we’ll examine your goods.

You can attend the examination if you wish. You may also:

• attend with a representative
• send someone to represent you
• choose not to attend

If you choose to attend or send a representative, we’ll arrange a suitable date and time for the examination to be held. This will be as soon as possible.

Please provide the full names of those attending and photo identification for each person.

Please note, you will also need to bring your own personal protective equipment, including safety footwear and a high-visibility vest or jacket. If you do not do this, you will not be able to attend the examination.

If you choose not to attend or do not reply, this will not prevent the examination being carried out.

If you have any questions at any stage, please tell the officer dealing with the check. We can only answer questions about the consignment being examined. If you have any questions about other consignments, you’ll need to contact: importenquiries.hmrcisbc@hmrc.gov.uk.

We’ll always tell you what we’re checking and we may ask you to give us information or documents that we need. If you’re not sure why we’re asking for something, please ask us and we’ll explain why.

If you cannot do what we ask, or if you think that something we’ve asked for is unreasonable or not relevant to the check, please tell us. We’ll consider your reasons carefully and if we still think what we have asked for is needed, we’ll tell you why.

During a pre-clearance check we may:

• ask questions about the type of representation being used
• ask questions about various aspects of the declaration or the goods
• examine any records relating to the declaration
• take details from the declaration and documents
• take samples to help classify and identify the goods
• mark goods, documents or items to show we’ve inspected them
• ask for your help when carrying out a physical inspection
• detain or seize goods found to be held contrary to customs law

Goods may also be checked by other government departments.

If we consider that financial securities are due that relate to your declaration, you will need to pay this before goods can be released. Please see the section below which explains what happens at the end of a pre-clearance check.

For more information on the compliance check process, go to www.gov.uk/hmrc/taxcompliancesupport.

Use of open source material during a compliance check

HMRC may observe, monitor, record and retain internet data which is available to anyone. This is known as ‘open source’ material and includes news reports, internet sites, Companies House and Land Registry records, blogs and social networking sites where no privacy settings have been applied.

If you need more time

If we’ve asked you to do something and you need more time, tell us. We may agree to allow extra time if there’s a good reason, for example, if you’re seriously ill or someone close to you has died.

Information and documents we can ask for

We can inspect any documents about the business. This includes information held on computers or data storage devices.

You must give us any documents or information we ask for that relate to the business. If you fail to give the information or documents, we may charge you a penalty.

We have the right to remove any records. If we remove any original records we’ll give you a receipt, keep the records secure and return them to you as soon as we can. If you need them back sooner, we’ll make copies and give these to you.

Third party enquiries

Sometimes we may need information from other people that’s relevant to your goods or services. If we do, we will not reveal any more about you than is necessary to get the information we need.

About the penalties that we may charge

You may have to pay a penalty if you’re found to have broken European Union and UK customs law on the import, export and holding or processing of goods under customs supervision. This includes, but is not limited to:

• infringements of customs regulations
• failure to comply with any customs-related approval, authorisation, registration or licence
• misdeclarations
• failure to comply with a customs procedure
• failure to produce information
• failure to keep records
• inaccurate returns or documents
• unauthorised removal of goods from customs supervision

You can find out more about penalties in:

• Notice 300: customs civil investigation of suspected evasion
• Notice 301: civil penalties for contraventions of customs law

Go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘Notice 300’ or ‘Notice 301’.

If you disagree

If you disagree with any actions taken, please tell the officer dealing with the check what you disagree with and why.

Before issuing a decision (except for seizures), we’ll normally write to you explaining our decision and the reasons for it. You have 30 days to respond if you disagree. When we’ve received your response or after 30 days (whichever is the earlier), we’ll make our decision, considering any further information given or points raised.

If we decide to seize any of your goods, we’ll refer you to Notice 12A: ‘What you can do if things are seized’ which explains what you can do.

If goods are seized, sometimes we may ask for payment of securities before releasing the goods. This would not affect your rights to request a review or appeal once the formal decision is issued.

The release of goods is on condition that there are no other customs issues identified and the payment has been fully processed.

You can appeal against most of the decisions that we make. We’ll write and tell you when we make a decision that you can appeal against. We’ll also explain the decision and tell you what to do if you disagree.

You can find out more:

• in factsheet HMRC1, ‘HM Revenue and Customs decisions — what to do if you disagree’ go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘HMRC1’
• if the decision is about the return of goods seized from you, go to www.gov.uk/customs-seizures

What happens if you give us information that you know to be untrue

We may carry out a criminal investigation with a view to prosecution if you:

• give us information that you know to be untrue, whether verbally or in a document
• dishonestly declare the wrong amount of duty or claim payments to which you’re not entitled

Your principal rights and obligations

You have:

• the right to be represented — you can authorise anyone to act on your behalf, but we will not delay carrying out our check (in some cases we’ll ask for written permission to deal with your representative, but you stay wholly or jointly responsible for declarations made in your name)
• the right to talk to an adviser — we’ll allow a reasonable amount of time for you to do so, but what’s reasonable will depend on the circumstances
• an obligation to take reasonable care to get things right — if you have an adviser, you must still take reasonable care to make sure that any returns, documents or details they send us on your behalf are correct
• an obligation to allow us to carry out an inspection and give the information required

We’ll protect any information we get, receive or hold about you.

We have the right to carry out a check in a reasonable and proportionate way. If you think our check is not reasonable and proportionate, tell us why.

The HMRC Charter explains what you can expect from us and what we expect from you. For more information, go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘HMRC Charter’.

Compliance checks that this factsheet relates to

This factsheet relates to compliance checks for the following:

• Anti-Dumping Duty
• Customs Duty
• Agricultural levy
• Import and export licences
• Common Agricultural Policy charges
• Import VAT
• Community Transit
• Preferential trade agreements
• Compensatory interest
• Prohibited and restricted goods
• Countervailing Duty

More information

Email correspondence

We can write to you by email, but we will not do so until you’ve given us prior consent and formally accepted the risks.

Email is not secure. If you choose to send us commercially sensitive information about your company or its business by email, you do so at your own risk. Similarly, if you ask us to send such information to you by email this is also at your own risk.

You can find more information on HMRC email policy in our phishing and scams guidance. Go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘Genuine HMRC contact’.

If you’re unhappy with our service

Tell the person or office you’ve been dealing with. They’ll try to put things right. If you’re still not happy, they’ll tell you how to make a formal complaint.

This factsheet is one of a series. For the full list of factsheets in our compliance checks series, go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘Compliance checks factsheets’.

Our privacy notice

Our privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from us when we ask for information or hold information about you. For more information, go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘HMRC Privacy Notice’.