E-commerce

Avoidance of ‘double duty’ is a key benefit of the customs warehouse regime. A customs warehouse allows the import of stock without upfront payment of duty. If that stock is re-exported outside the UK there is no duty payable in the UK. Give an indication of the percentage of imports which are re-exported.

It does not usually pay from a labour perspective to 100 % audit the piece count of every carton or shipment into a DC. Importers often trust the sender’s “count” is correct as a result. However, it is very seldom 100 % correct and this is one of the reasons why “stock adjustments” need to be made in a DC. If you paid duty on importation, you are stuck with the cost of having paid duty on stock that you never had to sell. If however, you hold the duty in suspension, you only ever pay duty when you come to sell the goods, have located them and have a warehouse removal associated to the duty payment. What is the estimated purchase value of all negative stock adjustments and missing stock each year?

Not all the goods you purchase will be sold. There are many reasons for this eg. you decided the quality of the product did not match your brands standards from a fit and quality perspective and decided to remove it from the Range plan. Or perhaps the goods were faulty and needed to be destroyed. What value of stock do you write off each year that you did not need to pay duty on?

When you import goods for processing or repair and then put them into free circulation you may be able to pay the rate of duty based on the goods at the time they were declared (as opposed to when they had full
value).

You can reduce or pay zero duty if you temporarily import goods such as samples, exhibition goods, demonstration goods, professional equipment, items for auction. Provided you do not alter the goods while they’re within the UK should mean you will not have to pay duty or import VAT.