Import VAT statements: download them within six months

Online sellers importing Christmas stock can account for import VAT on their return, but the statement that proves the claim is only online for six months.

Online sellers bringing in Christmas stock this autumn can avoid paying import VAT at the border by using postponed VAT accounting. The catch is the evidence. HMRC publishes a monthly statement of the VAT you postponed, and you can only access each one online for six months. After that it is archived.

How postponed VAT accounting works

Goods arriving in Great Britain from outside the UK are normally charged import VAT before they are released. Under postponed VAT accounting, a VAT-registered business puts that VAT on its VAT return instead. It goes in as VAT due and comes straight back out as VAT reclaimed, on the same return. For a business that can reclaim all its VAT, the two cancel out, and no VAT leaves the business at the port.

There is no application. HMRC's conditions are that the goods are for use in your business, that you have the right to dispose of them, and that your VAT registration number is on the import declaration. If a freight forwarder or courier clears the goods for you, they need your instruction in writing before they make the declaration. Once it is submitted, the choice cannot be changed.

One exception catches small importers. Goods sent through Royal Mail or Parcelforce's postal services in consignments worth more than £135 cannot use it.

The statement is your evidence

HMRC's guidance on paying VAT on imports says that to claim the input tax "you will need the import VAT statement as evidence". Statements are usually ready by the 10th working day of the following month, in the Customs Declaration Service.

The time limit is the easy part to miss. HMRC's guidance on getting your statement says you can only access a statement for six months from the date it is published, and that you must download and keep a copy of each one. Older statements are archived, and the route to an archived one runs through your Customs Declaration Service dashboard.

What it looks like for one container

Illustration, not a real client. Tunde runs a VAT-registered company in Barking that sells gift sets through Fulfilment by Amazon. In October 2026 he imports his Christmas stock. The customs value of the goods is £32,000 and the customs duty is £1,280. Import VAT is charged on both, so with no other costs to add, at 20 per cent it comes to £6,656.

With postponed VAT accounting. No import VAT is paid at the port, only the duty. His October statement shows £6,656. On the return for the quarter to 31 December, he enters £6,656 as VAT due and £6,656 as VAT reclaimed. The net cost is nil.
If his forwarder had not been told. The £6,656 is paid at the border and only comes back through his return for the quarter, due by 7 February 2027. Until then the money is out of the business, in his busiest season.
If the statement is never saved. The October statement should be ready by Friday 13 November 2026 and can be opened until around the middle of May 2027. If HMRC asks about the claim later in 2027, the evidence has to come out of the archive rather than out of his files.

The customs duty is a different matter. It is not VAT, it cannot be reclaimed on the return, and it is part of what the stock cost. Our guide to which VAT return boxes each import document feeds sets the entries out line by line.

Three checks before the stock lands

Give your forwarder or courier written instructions to use postponed VAT accounting, with your VAT and EORI numbers.
Put the 10th working day of each month in the diary, download that month's statement, and file it with your VAT records.
Match every shipment to a line on the statement. If one is missing, ask your agent to confirm it went against your EORI number, not someone else's.

None of this is new. What changes in the autumn, for a seller importing Christmas stock, is the volume: more shipments, more declarations, more lines to match. The October statement arrives by mid-November and the December one in mid-January, so both are in hand before the return is due. Download them when they land, not when HMRC asks.

About the author

Harvey Dhillon is the founder and CEO of Zmartly, a UK accountancy firm for ecommerce sellers. He grew up in West London and began his career in investment banking finance at Barclays, before going full-time on Zmartly in 2020. He is a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA, CGMA).

Featured photo by Bent Van Aeken on Unsplash.