In this week’s bulletin, read about HMRC’s announcement that the CHIEF customs system will close on 31 March 2023. You can now register for a series of ‘Ask the expert’ events hosted by the Northern Ireland Customs and Trade Academy and the Trader Support Service team has reminded traders about the customs requirements when moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland via Ireland. We also bring you a response from HMRC in relation to our request that the Trader Support Service be extended beyond 2022.
TSS extension dependent outcome of Protocol talks
Following a survey of members who use the Trader Support Service (TSS), the Institute wrote to HMRC seeking that the service be extended beyond the current two-year operational timeframe.
We highlighted to HMRC that should the TSS cease at the end of 2022, there is a significant risk that traders will not be in a position to file the necessary declarations either by using internal expertise or via third party intermediaries due to capacity constraints, and this will have serious implications for the flow of goods into Northern Ireland.
The TSS is primarily used to move goods in or out of Northern Ireland and to date has facilitated the movement of just under 1.7 million consignments of goods into Northern Ireland.
In a written response, HMRC stated that the “proposals are currently the subject of on-going discussions with the EU and the future of the TSS, including whether an extension to the current service will be required, will be tailored to reflect the outcomes of these talks.”
HMRC has taken our feedback into account and will ensure that the Institute is engaged on these outcomes in due course. We will keep members updated.
Closure of CHIEF customs system on 31 March 2023
HMRC will close its Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) system on 31 March 2023. It will be replaced by the Customs Declaration Service (CDS).
CDS will serve as the UK’s single customs platform for all declarations and all goods will need to be declared through CDS from this date. HMRC has written to affected traders encouraging exporters in particular, to move across to CDS. Read the letter.
HMRC writes to traders regarding full customs controls in Great Britain
HMRC has written to traders who trade with the EU in relation to the full customs controls that came into effect on 1 January 2022 between the EU (except the island of Ireland) and Great Britain.
The letter contains information about the correct customs declaration to submit, the use of postponed VAT accounting, and applying the correct commodity codes, among other matters. Read the letter.
Register for ‘Ask the expert’ events in January and February
To help you in the completion of supplementary declarations, the Northern Ireland Customs and Trade Academy will be running interactive Q&A sessions with small groups across January and February, allowing you to put complex queries to customs and trade experts. The sessions are as follows:
Having issues with setting up your API (Application Programming Interface)? - Join a one-hour webinar on 25 January or 8 February
Having trouble with movements under a customs special procedure? Join a one-hour webinar on 26 January or 9 February
Are your declarations stuck in Trader Input Required (TIR), with errors, draft or payment pending? Join a one-hour webinar on 27 January or 10 February
Trader Support Service – are you seeking improvements to the service?
In response to user feedback, the Trader Support Service (TSS) team tell us that they have implemented the following improvements and enhancements:
- Providing additional options for package type codes (e.g. hanging rails)
- Updating data fields with more meaningful field names such as ‘Item Price / Amount’
and ‘Item Currency’
- Introducing e-mail notifications when updates are added to complaints records and
giving you the ability to ‘reject’ complaint resolutions if you are unsatisfied
- Making the user experience more consistent around consignments containing
controlled goods i.e. the system now makes clear what you need to complete in relation to controlled goods
- Improvements to supplementary declaration list views to show statuses and
deadlines for action
- Adding links to support materials on the declaration pages within the TSS portal
The team would like users to let them know how they are doing via customer satisfaction surveys throughout 2022 so that they can continue to provide improvements to the service.
Reminder: Moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland via Ireland
The latest Trader Support Service (TSS) Bulletin reminds readers that there are only two ways for goods to move from Great Britain to Northern Ireland via Ireland.
A Transit process whereby goods depart from Great Britain, move through Ireland and into Northern Ireland, where they are presented to customs on arrival. This process allows the goods to move under duty suspension, until arrival in Northern Ireland, at which point an import declaration is required.
The TSS offers a declarations service to support this process, including starting and ending the Transit and ending the customs procedure involved with the movement. More information can be found in the TSS Transit guide.
A direct import into Ireland, whereby goods are imported and declared to customs at the point of entry into Ireland and are then in free circulation for onward movement within Ireland or for onward movement to another EU country.
The TSS does not support this movement because it is a direct import into an EU member state and therefore traders will have to make their own arrangements with regards to customs.
Latest TSS bulletin
The 59th edition of the TSS bulletin covers the following which readers might find interesting:
How the annual update of commodity codes might impact you
- Applying to the UK Trader Scheme for goods not ‘at risk’ of moving to the EU
- Apply for an using a Duty Deferment Account
- How to successfully move controlled goods to Northern Ireland.
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