Guidance

Taking commercial goods out of Great Britain in your baggage

Find out what you need to do when exporting commercial goods out of Great Britain in your accompanied baggage or small vehicle.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 31 December 2020
• Last updated: 15 January 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

• Guidance for Northern Ireland

Commercial goods in your accompanied baggage, also known as merchandise in baggage, are goods which you plan to sell or use in your business, where:

• a commercial transport operator does not carry them for you or you do not pay them to carry them for you
• you’ve travelled from Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) carrying goods either in:
  • your baggage 
  • a small vehicle that can carry no more than 9 people and weighs 3.5 tonnes or less

You must declare all commercial goods. There is no duty free allowance for goods you’re taking out to sell or use in your business.

What you’ll need

You, or someone dealing with customs for you, will need to:

1. Get an EORI number.

2. Declare the goods to HMRC.

There’s a different way to declare:

• goods that are for personal use
• commercial goods you’re bringing into Great Britain

How to declare

If you take commercial goods out of Great Britain, you must make one of the following:

• a full export declaration
• a simple online declaration
• a declaration by conduct

You have 5 days to declare the goods before you leave Great Britain if you make a simple online declaration.

You do not need to make a safety and security declaration for merchandise in baggage exports.

Making a full export declaration

You should check the customs requirements for the country you’re travelling to because these may differ from UK requirements.

Submitting an export declaration does not exempt you from customs declarations requirements of another country.

Submit a full export declaration before leaving Great Britain

You must submit a full export declaration before you leave Great Britain if your goods:

• have a value of more than £2,500
• weigh more than 1,000kg in total
• are restricted goods or controlled goods — for example, that need a licence
• are alcohol, tobacco or fuel  (excise goods) 

You must submit a full export declaration if your goods are being put into or taken out of a customs special procedure, or if you intend to claim a relief for these goods.

You must also submit a full export declaration if you’re claiming VAT relief.

Check if your goods are restricted or controlled in the UK Integrated Online Tariff.

If you’re making a full export declaration, you (or someone dealing with customs for you) will need to:

1. Get an EORI number.

2. Declare the goods to HMRC.

You need to submit full export declarations using the Customs Declarations Service. You’ll need to make sure that you or your agent have access to the Customs Declaration Service.

Exporters have until 30 March 2024 to move all full customs declarations across to the Customs Declaration Service.

You’ll need specialist software to make a full export declaration electronically into the Customs Declaration Service.

If you’re making your own full export declaration, you’ll also need software that works with the Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) system.

To access the Customs Declaration Service or CHIEF system, check the list of software developers who can provide specialist software.

Making a simple online declaration

If you do not need to make a full export declaration, you can make a simple online declaration in the 5 days before you leave with your goods.

You can make a simple declaration using the merchandise in baggage online declaration service if your goods:

• are leaving Great Britain
• have a value of less than £2,500
• weigh less than 1,000kg in total
• are not restricted goods or controlled goods — for example, that need a licence
• are not alcohol, tobacco or fuel (excise goods) 

You cannot make a simple online declaration if your goods are being put into or taken out of a customs special procedure, or if you intend to claim a relief for these goods.

Check for restricted or controlled goods in the UK Integrated Online Tariff.

What declaring online allows you to do

Declaring online allows you to:

• go through the green channel, also known as ‘nothing to declare’
• add goods to a declaration you’ve already made, as long as all the goods combined:
  • have a value of less than £2,500
  • weigh less than 1,000kg in total
  • are not restricted goods or controlled goods — for example, that need a licence
  • are not alcohol, tobacco or fuel (excise goods)

Check if your goods are restricted or controlled in the UK Integrated Online Tariff.

Before leaving Great Britain make a simple online declaration.

Making a declaration by conduct

You can make a declaration by conduct at the point of exit from Great Britain if your goods:

• have a value of less than £2,500
• weigh less than 1,000kg in total
• are not restricted goods or controlled goods — for example, that need a licence
• are not alcohol, tobacco or fuel (excise goods)

You cannot make a declaration by conduct if your goods are being put into or taken out of a customs special procedure, or if you intend to claim a relief for these goods.

To make the declaration, you must:

• walk through a customs control point (this can be a green channel signed ‘nothing to declare’) with the goods, if you’re an individual on foot
• drive (or be driven) past a customs control point with the goods inside your vehicle, if you’re travelling in a vehicle
• continue your onward journey, if there are no customs control points

You should make a simple online declaration rather than a declaration by conduct if you need evidence of export.

Moving commercial goods in your accompanied baggage from Great Britain to Northern Ireland

You do not need to make a declaration when your goods leave Great Britain but you will need to make a declaration in Northern Ireland. HMRC has provided a free to use Trader Support Service. You can make declarations using this service for any value or nature of goods.

Find out more about how you can use the Trader Support Service to make declarations for merchandise in baggage on the Northern Ireland Customs and Trade Academy website.

Published 31 December 2020
Last updated 15 January 2024 + show all updates

1. 15 January 2024

   The threshold of the maximum value for making simplified declarations of merchandise in baggage has risen to £2,500.

2. 14 December 2023

   Welsh translation added.

3. 24 August 2023

   This has been updated because declarations of merchandise in baggage exports should now be made using the Customs Declaration Service.

4. 26 October 2021

   Definition of ‘declaration by conduct’ added.

5. 16 July 2021

   A Welsh Language version of the page has been added.

6. 29 June 2021

   Information about what you’ll need to do when you leave Great Britain from 1 July 2021 has been added.

7. 5 May 2021

   Welsh translation added.

8. 19 April 2021

   Guidance about making a simple online declaration has been updated.

9. 17 March 2021

   Date for when you will need to submit a full-customs export declaration to HMRC has been added.

10. 15 March 2021

    The date from when you will need to submit a safety and security declaration to HMRC if you are carrying your goods in a goods vehicle, has been updated to 1 January 2022. The previous date of 1 July 2022 was published in error.

11. 12 March 2021

    The date from when you will need to submit a safety and security declaration to HMRC if you are carrying your goods in a goods vehicle, has been updated to 1 July 2022.

12. 11 March 2021

    Information about submitting a safety and security declaration to HMRC, if you are carrying your goods in a goods vehicle has been added.

13. 31 December 2020

    First published.