Guidance

Amend or cancel a Customs Declaration Service import declaration

When you can amend or cancel your declaration depends on if you have received a final tax calculation message or if the declaration has been cleared.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 18 August 2022
• Last updated: 16 February 2024 — See all updates

Amending a declaration

You can use your Customs Declaration Service software to submit amendments to import declarations.

Amendments can be made up until you receive a final tax calculation message from the Customs Declaration Service, unless:

• a claim to quota is being made, meaning the tax calculation at the end of the dwell time is provisional
• your account does not have enough balance to cover the customs debt (an alert will be issued to resolve this)

If you cannot amend your declaration, you can cancel and resubmit it if the declaration has not been cleared.

If you submit an amendment to an existing declaration, and you get an error message, you can either submit a:

• nil amendment (an amendment with no changes)
• new amendment to correct the error

The declaration will be paused until the error is corrected.

The message and notifications you receive after making a successful amendment depends on the type of declaration and the software you are using.

Using your software

You can contact your software supplier:

• for more information on how to make an amendment
• to check if you can find out the status of your declaration through the Customs Declaration Service, Declaration Information Service

You cannot amend your declaration using Customs Declarations Service software once it has been cleared.

Cancelling a declaration

This is known as ‘invalidation’ and ‘withdrawal’.

You can make an invalidation request up until the declaration is cleared. If the declaration has not yet arrived, you will need to request invalidation.

If the declaration has arrived and is under control, the customs authority (HMRC, UK Border Force or Trading Standards) will decide if the invalidation request should be accepted.

When the control is finalised and you receive a final provisional tax or insufficient balance message, the invalidation request will be automatically accepted.

If you submit an amendment to an existing declaration, and you get an error message, it cannot be invalidated until the error has been resolved.

Once cleared, you cannot amend or cancel your customs declaration in the Customs Declaration Service. You must instead notify HMRC of your intention to amend or cancel your declaration. All requests will be reviewed by HMRC. You have up to 3 years to amend and 90 days to cancel your declaration. 

To request an amendment or cancellation after clearance, you must notify HMRC using either a:

• voluntary clearance amendment (underpayment) (C2001)
• repayment of import duty and VAT if you’ve overpaid (C285)

Published 18 August 2022
Last updated 16 February 2024 + show all updates

1. 16 February 2024

   Guidance for cancelling a declaration after clearance has been updated.

2. 18 August 2022

   First published.