Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 2018 c. 22 |
| Year | 2018 |
Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018
2018 Chapter 22
An Act to impose and regulate a duty of customs by reference to the importation of goods into the United Kingdom; to confer a power to impose and regulate a duty of customs by reference to the export of goods from the United Kingdom; to make other provision in relation to any duty of customs in connection with the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU; to amend the law relating to value added tax, and the law relating to any excise duty on goods, in connection with that withdrawal; and for connected purposes.
[13 September 2018]
Most Gracious Sovereign
We, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled, towards raising the necessary supplies to defray Your Majesty’s public expenses, and making an addition to the public revenue, have freely and voluntarily resolved to give and to grant unto Your Majesty the several duties hereinafter mentioned; and do therefore most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
PART 1
Import duty
The charge to tax
1 Charge to import duty
A duty of customs (to be known as “import duty”) is charged in accordance with provision made by or under this Part by reference to the importation of chargeable goods into the United Kingdom.
2 Chargeable goods
Goods are “chargeable goods” for the purposes of this Part unless they are domestic goods.
Incurring of liability to import duty
3 Obligation to declare goods for a Customs procedure on import
(1) Chargeable goods which are presented to Customs on import must be declared for a Customs procedure by the making of a Customs declaration.
(2) It is the Customs procedure for which the goods are declared that determines when a liability to import duty is incurred.
(3) The Customs procedures for which chargeable goods may be declared are as follows—
(a)
(a) a procedure under which the goods are released for free circulation in the United Kingdom (referred to in this Part as “the free-circulation procedure”), or
(b)
(b) a special Customs procedure.
(4) In this Part “special Customs procedure” means—
(a)
(a) a storage procedure,
(b)
(b) a transit procedure,
(c)
(c) an inward processing procedure, or
(d)
(d) an authorised use procedure or temporary admission procedure.
(5) Schedule 1 makes provision about—
(a)
(a) the period within which Customs declarations are required to be made (and associated matters),
(b)
(b) the making, amendment or withdrawal of Customs declarations,
(c)
(c) the acceptance of Customs declarations by HMRC,
(d)
(d) the verification of Customs declarations by HMRC officers, and
(e)
(e) the release of goods to, and the discharge of goods from, Customs procedures.
(6) Schedule 2 makes further provision about special Customs procedures.
4 When liability to import duty incurred
(1) If—
(a)
(a) chargeable goods are declared for the free-circulation procedure, and
(b)
(b) HMRC accept the declaration,
a liability to import duty is incurred at the time of the acceptance.
(2) If chargeable goods are declared for—
(a)
(a) a storage procedure,
(b)
(b) a transit procedure, or
(c)
(c) an inward processing procedure,
the general rule is that a liability to import duty is not incurred by reference to the importation of the goods.
(3) This rule is subject to the following two exceptions—
(a)
(a) if there is no entitlement to make the Customs declaration concerned, a liability to import duty is incurred at the time the (purported) declaration is made, and
(b)
(b) if there is a breach by any person of any requirement relating to the procedure, a liability to import duty is incurred at the time at which the breach first occurs.
(4) In the case of goods declared for an authorised use procedure or temporary admission procedure—
(a)
(a) a liability to import duty is incurred at the time the declaration is accepted by HMRC,
(b)
(b) if there is an entitlement to make the declaration for the procedure, the rate of import duty is lower than the normal rate (see section 19(4)),
(c)
(c) if there is no such entitlement, the liability is at the normal rate, and
(d)
(d) if there is a breach of a requirement relating to the procedure, a further liability to import duty arises at the time of the breach at the normal rate reduced to take account of the amount of any earlier liability.
(5) In the case of goods declared for a temporary admission procedure, see also section 19(5).
(6) In this section any reference to the breach of a requirement relating to a special Customs procedure is to—
(a)
(a) a breach, occurring while the procedure has effect, of the terms of the declaration for the procedure or of any other requirement imposed in relation to the procedure by or under Schedule 2, or
(b)
(b) a breach, occurring at any time after the declaration was made, of any other requirement imposed by an HMRC officer in relation to the goods for which the declaration was made.
(7) In this section “the normal rate” means the rate that, at the time of the declaration or breach (as the case may be), would be applicable if section 19(4) were ignored.
5 Goods not presented to Customs or Customs declaration not made
(1) If chargeable goods—
(a)
(a) are imported into the United Kingdom, and
(b)
(b) are not presented to Customs on import (if so required),
the goods are liable to forfeiture (as to which, see Part 11 of CEMA 1979) at the time of importation.
(2) If goods are liable to forfeiture as a result of—
(a)
(a) subsection (1), or
(b)
(b) paragraph 1(5) or 3(4) of Schedule 1 (no Customs declaration made),
a liability to import duty is incurred at the time at which the goods become liable to forfeiture.
Person liable to import duty
6 Person liable to import duty
(1) If a Customs declaration is made in respect of any chargeable goods, the person in whose name the declaration is made is the person liable to import duty in respect of the goods.
(2) If a liability to import duty is incurred as a result of section 5 in respect of any chargeable goods, any person who is in possession or control of the goods when they enter the United Kingdom is liable to import duty in respect of the goods.
(3) In addition to any person liable as a result of subsection (1) or (2), each of the following persons is liable to import duty—
(a)
(a) a person on whose behalf a Customs declaration is made,
(b)
(b) a person liable as a result of provision made by section 21(6) (Customs agents),
(c)
(c) a person liable as a result of provision made under paragraph 21 of Schedule 2 (special Customs procedures), and
(d)
(d) a person otherwise involved in a breach of a relevant Customs obligation.
(4) For this purpose a person is otherwise involved in a breach of a relevant Customs obligation if—
(a)
(a) the person provides false information in connection with a chargeable Customs declaration and the person knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that the information was false,
(b)
(b) the person (“A”) acted (whether as a Customs agent or otherwise) on behalf of another person who breached a relevant Customs obligation and A knew, or ought reasonably to have known, of the breach by that other person,
(c)
(c) the person participated in, or was otherwise involved in, a breach of a relevant Customs obligation and knew, or ought reasonably to have known, of the breach, or
(d)
(d) the person possesses or controls the goods at a time when there has been a breach of a relevant Customs obligation and the person knew, or ought reasonably to have known, of the breach.
(5) For the purposes of subsection (4)(a) a person (“P”) provides “false information in connection with a chargeable Customs declaration” if—
(a)
(a) P provides information to another person to enable that other person to make a Customs declaration,
(b)
(b) that other person makes the declaration, and
(c)
(c) the information provided by P is false.
(6) For the purposes of subsection (4) there is “a breach of a relevant Customs obligation” if—
(a)
(a) there is a breach of a requirement imposed on any person that results in a liability to import duty, or
(b)
(b) circumstances otherwise arise that result in a liability to import duty,
and, in a case within paragraph (b) of this subsection, references to knowledge of the breach are to knowledge of those circumstances.
(7) If two or more persons are liable to import duty in any case, those persons are jointly and severally liable to import duty in that case.
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