All traders moving goods to and from the United Kingdom should make themselves familiar with the Customs Declaration Service. CDS is the UK’s new electronic system, designed to effectively handle the process of lodging customs declarations.
Starting October 1st, all traders must submit import declarations using CDS. If you fail to subscribe to the service by then, your customs brokers may have trouble accessing your customs deferrals.
What is the Customs Declaration Service?
The Customs Declaration Service will be replacing the Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight, or the CHIEF system. Starting October 1st, 2022, all businesses dealing with imports will have to use the CDS system instead of the CHIEF system. If you’re filling out an import declaration form in the UK, you’ll need to transfer.
In case you haven’t yet, you should register for a Government Gateway account and subscribe to the Customs Declaration Service as soon as possible. If you don’t, there may be serious repercussions that could hurt your business.
What happens if I don’t switch to CDS?
On October 1st, all imports will have to use the CDS system. This means that the CHIEF system will be unavailable for importers. Furthermore, CHIEF will also be closed for export customs declaration management, starting April 1st, 2023. If you don’t switch before those times, you will be unable to import or export your goods to and from the United Kingdom.
The UK is striving to achieve a Single Trade Windows, which means that all importers and exporters will be able to submit custom forms like the T1 declaration or the EX1 document only once, reducing needless bureaucracy and speeding up processing times.
How to transition to CDS?
For filling out a Customs Declaration Form from UK to EU, you’ll need to use CDS in just one week! Remember that it can also take as long as five working days for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to process your application for signing up for CDS. If you haven’t yet applied, now is the time to do so!
First, you’ll need to access the Government Gateway. To receive a user ID and password for your business, you’ll need an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number, Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR), business address, and the date you started your business.
For more information and help in subscribing to the Customs Declaration Service, visit the On The Spot Broker website – they offer out-of-hours support, 7 days a week, helping businesses with no experience in cross-border trade.
Key benefits of Customs Declaration Service
If all goes well, CDS will be able to improve trade to and from the UK, making moving goods more cost-effective, and with less bureaucracy required. The CDS system will give traders real-time notifications on all their import and export declarations, as well as goods movement.
You’ll also be able to directly manage your finances with a connected Duty Deferment Account, enabling you to make payments for clearance immediately and without delay.