Over the past two years, we have seen a significant increase in the overpayment of Customs Duties. From our own Client data, we see 14% of all consignments have a Customs Duty overpayment.
The good news is that Traders are entitled to reclaim all of their overpaid Customs Duty up to 3 years from the date of clearance.
Reclaiming Overpaid Customs Duties
Tax Authorities administer a clear process for Customs Duty and Import VAT reclaims. The steps for a Trader to reclaim overpaid Customs Duty are as follows:
- Establish Overpayment
- Gather Supporting Evidence
- Complete the C285 Form
- Submit to HMRC
- Triage with HMRC DRC Team
- Account for Disbursement
Falsum’s Duty Management Tool DMT is a unique, unified platform that handles the reclaim of Customs Duties on behalf of a Trader.
Checking Your Customs Duty Exposure
There’s only one way to really if your business has overpaid Customs Duties & import VAT since Brexit; request your MSS Data from HMRC.
MSS Data is a log of all import declarations made on your business’s behalf throughout the UK.By analysing the matrix of product, origin, dispatch, value & tax in an MSS Data Report, a Trader can understand the Border Taxes paid against the Border Taxes that should have been due.
Gather Evidence
Traders are expected to present evidence to HMRC to support their Duty Reclaim and establish why they were unable to claim the correct Customs Duty at the point of import.
Evidence can include; Commercial Invoice, Packing Lists, Transportation documents, C88/SAD Documents, Airway Bills, Certificates of Origin (“CoO”), Supplier Declarations, & more.
Complete the C285 Form
A Trader must complete the C285 Form with each line-item reclaim request. The C285 Form can be completed
A Trader must define a legal basis for the Duty Reclaim request and give evidence to support the legal basis stated.
Triage with HMRC’s Duty Reclaim Team
In some circumstances, the HMRC Duty Reclaim Team may ask a Trader a number of qualifying questions for their Duty Reclaim.
HMRC may also request further evidence to support a Duty Reclaim dependent on the circumstances, the Country of Origin and the other parties involved in the importation of goods.
Account for the Reclaim Disbursement
After a disbursement of overpaid Border Tax is made to a Trader, they may need to account for and/or adjust their Import VAT & Input VAT position for the period in question.
The Duty Management Tool
For many Traders, the administrative time burden of navigating the Duty Reclaim process rarely results in a good return on investment. However, the Falsum Labs DMT is a ‘managed service’ designed to make get the greatest value back to your business:
- Falsum request the MSS Data on your behalf
- Falsum pay HMRC directly for the MSS Data access
- MSS Data is provided directly to Falsum for analysis
- The Duty Management Tool (DMT) runs a fully-automated Customs Duty analysis
- The Duty Management Portal (DMP) gathers evidence and generates supporting legal documentation on behalf of Traders
We estimate the Duty Management Tool saves an average of 147 minutes per Consignment reclaim.
Our Duty Management Tool (DMT) can process your MSS data in minutes. The DMT establishes your Border Tax over-exposure and begins the automated Duty Reclaim process on your behalf.
