Explanatory note

The Regulations are made by HMRC Commissioners under the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (c. 2) and the Treasury further to Part 1 of the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 (c. 22) (“the Act”). This is an EU Exit statutory instrument.

Part 1 provides for citation and commencement. The Regulations will largely be brought into force by way of a separate statutory instrument made under section 52 of the Act, but certain provisions will be brought into force on 1 October 2020 and the 31 October 2020 in order to allow authorisations to be granted in advance of IP completion day.

Part 2 makes provision to authorise persons to make bulk Customs declarations for goods contained in postal packets.

Part 3 makes amendments to a number of customs EU Exit instruments.

Regulation 6 makes a minor amendment the Customs (Temporary Storage Facilities Approval Conditions and Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2018/1247) to ensure the definition of UK Establishment is consistent with other customs EU Exit instruments.

Regulations 7 and 11 make a number of amendments to the Customs (Import Duty) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2018/1248) (“the import duty regulations”). These amendments include: regulations 7(6) which amends the import duty regulations to ensure the UK can comply with its obligations under the Customs Convention on the “A.T.A. Carnet” for the temporary admission of goods done at Brussels on 6 December 1961 and the Convention on Temporary Admission done at Istanbul on 26 June 1990; regulations 7(3) and 11(2) which amend the import duty regulations to extend the same treatment to trains as that received by ships and aircraft, and regulation 7(7) which substitutes a new regulation 43 of the import duty regulations which sets out the time by which import duty must be paid and the circumstances in which payment may be deferred. The changes resulting from the substitution provide for HMRC to approve persons to defer payment of import duty without a guarantee in certain circumstances. Consequential amendments are also made to regulations 40, 97 and 98 of the import duty regulations (regulation 7(5), (9) and (10)) and regulation 5 of the Customs (Crown Dependencies Customs Union) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/385).

The notices referred to in regulations 4 and 5 and the amendment made by regulation 7(7) will be published https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/customs-vat-and-excise-uk-transition-legislation-from-1-january-2021. A person unable to access the notices electronically may access them while government advice on social distancing and unnecessary travel applies, in hard copy by post free of charge on application to 07741835049, and otherwise by inspection free of charge at HMRC, 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ.

A Tax Information and Impact Note covering this instrument will be published on the website at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-information-and-impact-notes-tiins.