Challenges faced by UK customs brokers

Holly Piggott, Director of Alinea Customs, shares a UK customs brokerage's first-hand perspective on the practical and commercial challenges of supporting overseas companies through postponed accounting for import VAT (PVA) and indirect/fiscal representation — essential viewing for customs practitioners and trade compliance professionals working with non-UK-established clients.

Topics covered:

• How postponed accounting for import VAT (PVA) works since Brexit, and the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) financial dashboard
• Why overseas companies (often Amazon sellers based in the EU and beyond) increasingly ask UK customs brokers to act as fiscal representative or VAT agent
• The compliance obligations this creates: HMRC anti-money laundering (AML) supervision, enhanced due diligence, and registering as a tax agent
• The commercial case for brokers: income stream, client retention, and the risks around contracts and professional indemnity insurance for indirect representation
• A worked customs valuation case study for an overseas Amazon seller, including HMRC's customs valuation methods
• Ongoing compliance obligations for overseas VAT-registered clients supplying from the UK

For a broader overview of the topic, please watch the full recording. The slides are available in the Resources section.

Please note that this summary was generated using AI, based on the recording and available slides.