Accounting for import VAT on your VAT Return means you’ll declare and recover import VAT on the same VAT Return, rather than having to pay it upfront and recover it later.

The normal rules about what VAT can be reclaimed as input tax will apply.

Who can account for import VAT on their VAT Return

From 1 January 2021, if your business is registered for VAT in the UK, you’ll be able to account for import VAT on your VAT Return for goods you import into:

• Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) from anywhere outside the UK
• Northern Ireland from outside the UK and EU

You do not need any approval to account for import VAT on your VAT Return.

Non-established taxable persons

If you’re a non-established taxable person you’ll need to get someone to deal with customs for you, including completing your customs declaration.

If you want to account for import VAT on your VAT Return, you must tell the person dealing with customs for you to select this on your customs declaration and enter your details as the consignee.

When you can account for import VAT on your VAT Return

You can do this if:

• the goods you import are for use in your business
• you include your VAT registration number on your customs declaration

Goods in special procedures

If you declare goods into a customs special procedure, you can select that you’ll be accounting for import VAT on your VAT Return when you submit the declaration that removes them into free circulation from the following special procedures:

• customs warehousing
• inward processing
• temporary admission
• end use
• outward processing
• duty suspension

Excise goods

You can select to account for import VAT on your VAT Return when you release excise goods for use in the UK – also known as ‘released for home consumption’.

This includes when goods are released from an excise warehouse after being in duty suspense since the point of import.

When you must account for import VAT on your VAT Return

If you import goods that are not controlled into Great Britain from the EU between 1 January and 30 June 2021, you must account for import VAT on your VAT Return if you either:

• delay your customs declaration
• use a simplified customs declaration to make a declaration in your own records

You must make sure that when you complete the supplementary declaration you select that you’ll be accounting for import VAT on your VAT Return.

How to complete your customs declaration in order to account for import VAT on your VAT Return

When you complete your customs declaration you can select that you’ll be accounting for import VAT on your VAT Return.

If you use the Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) system

On your declaration, you’ll need to enter:

• your EORI number starting with ‘GB’ which includes your VAT registration number into box 8 (Header Consignee), or, if applicable, your VAT registration number in box 44h (Registered Consignee)
• ‘G’ as the method of payment in Box 47e

If you use the Customs Declaration Service

You need to enter your VAT registration number at header level in data element 3/40.

VAT will be recorded against your EORI and will be at declaration level only.

If you act on behalf of someone else

If you’ve been authorised to act on behalf of your client, you must use their EORI number or VAT registration number on the customs declaration.

If you import goods in consignments not exceeding £135 in value

Find out about the treatment of VAT for overseas goods sold:

• to customers in Great Britain using online marketplaces from 1 January 2021
• directly to customers in Great Britain from 1 January 2021

These rules will not apply to the import of consignments of goods containing excise goods, you can choose to account for the import VAT on your VAT Return for those consignments.

What you need to do next

If you have selected that you are accounting for import VAT on your VAT Return on your customs declaration you will need to account for import VAT when you complete your VAT Return.