Importing from China to the UK: PVA, C79 and stock records

Your Chinese supplier has delivered the first stock batch to a UK address. The cartons are counted, the courier has sent a bill and you are preparing a VAT return. One shipment seems to appear on a postponed VAT statement; another has a paid tax charge. The practical question is which evidence belongs to each entry. This article follows stock imported into Great Britain for your webshop, with a later handover to someone who packs your orders. Check Northern Ireland arrangements separately where they affect your route.

Was PVA actually used on this import entry? #

Start with the customs declaration rather than the wording of the supplier’s delivery quote. HMRC’s guidance on when you can account for import VAT on your return describes the conditions for a UK VAT-registered business using postponed accounting. The choice and relevant identifiers need to be handled correctly in the declaration. Being VAT registered does not tell you which method your agent used for a particular shipment.

Before the next batch leaves, give the agent your verified business details, relevant EORI and VAT number, and the agreed accounting instructions. Ask for confirmation of the method used when the entry is completed. Do not assume the Chinese factory has passed every detail to a subcontracted courier. Where different agents handle different imports, each needs the same current instructions. An informal instruction on one old shipment is a weak basis for the next supplier’s delivery.

For the batch already received, request the entry reference and evidence of the declared VAT treatment. If the courier asks for a payment, separate import VAT, customs duty and its service charges. PVA is a treatment of import VAT; it does not turn customs duty or a clearance service into a postponed VAT item. Ask what each charged line represents before booking the entire courier bill under one tax code.

Which monthly document should you download? #

If PVA was used, obtain the postponed import VAT statement through the Customs Declaration Service. HMRC says statements are normally available by the tenth working day of the month. Direct access lasts six months from publication; older statements are archived. Download the actual document into your records. Treat that period as an access window, not permission to discard your tax records after six months.

For the paid route described in its guidance, HMRC provides the C79 import VAT certificate where import VAT was paid using a duty deferment account. The page now also gives a usual tenth-working-day availability and a six-month direct access window. If your payment arrangement is different, confirm the proper evidence for that case with your adviser and agent. Do not promise yourself a C79 merely because a courier has collected money.

Keep separate folders or labels for PVA and paid-import-VAT evidence. The aim is to prevent one entry being reclaimed twice because a courier invoice and a monthly document both mention tax. Your supplier invoice still supports the commercial purchase; the monthly document supports the relevant import VAT treatment. Write down the entry reference beside each record so the bookkeeping review can identify one shipment across several files.

How do the statements feed into the VAT return? #

HMRC’s guidance on completing a VAT return for import VAT assigns postponed import VAT due to box 1, reclaimable import VAT to box 4, and the value of imported goods excluding VAT to box 7. Normal input tax recovery rules still apply. Do not copy the box 1 figure into box 4 without checking your entitlement and any restrictions affecting the business.

Account for postponed import VAT in the period covering the date of import, as HMRC directs. Your supplier payment date, the date your packer counts the products and the date of the first customer sale may all differ. Keep them as separate fields in your working record. A batch sitting unsold on a shelf does not become a reason to wait for customer orders before considering its import VAT period.

What if a shipment is missing from the PVA statement? #

HMRC tells businesses to ask the agent to confirm whether import VAT was allocated to the correct EORI. It also flags checking another relevant statement where companies are closely related or in a VAT group. This is a targeted investigation, not a basis for moving another business’s entry into your own return. Ask the agent for the entry reference, named importer and allocation, then involve the responsible adviser in the correction.

Do not estimate a missing entry just because an old online article discusses estimates for delayed declarations. HMRC’s current guidance treats specific missing entries separately from its historic delayed-declaration arrangements. Follow the instructions relevant to your situation and seek a documented answer. Keep the issue on an exception list while it is being resolved. The list should identify the shipment, missing evidence, person handling it and what remains to be confirmed.

If you discover that an amount already accounted for has changed, HMRC distinguishes nil net tax errors, which can be amended on the next return in the stated circumstances, from other errors requiring its correction procedures. Customs duty corrections follow their own route. Let your adviser determine the appropriate treatment. A revised supplier invoice or a warehouse shortage does not automatically authorise the same adjustment to every tax figure.

How do you reconcile VAT evidence with what the packer received? #

Give the stock batch a stable internal reference and link it to the customs entry. For each product, record your SKU, supplier description and the declared line or grouping to which it belongs. The packer works with the sellable variants, not your VAT return boxes. Supply a usable receiving list that makes colour, size and pack quantities clear. A signed delivery of outer cartons does not prove that every listed unit was present.

Record received quantity, damaged units and unidentified items separately. If the packing list and physical count disagree, preserve both and investigate the cause. Do not quietly alter the customs record to match the store’s available stock figure. A missing product could reflect a supplier mistake, damage, miscount or a declaration issue. Those explanations lead to different next steps, and the agent needs the evidence rather than a replacement total.

Only release goods for customer orders once the customs status and applicable product requirements have been checked. A home address used for packing does not become a customs warehouse simply because imported stock is delivered there. If the goods remain under a customs procedure, have the agent confirm the permitted movement and destination. Keep that decision separate from the packer’s willingness to accept a carton.

Who needs access to the import file? #

For a stock receipt process, read the first stock delivery to a fulfilment provider. Apply the receiving checks appropriate to your own local arrangement. The useful lesson is the link between the inward consignment and usable stock; you do not need to give a local packer the responsibilities of a customs agent. Specify what happens when a product cannot be identified and who can authorise its release.

What should the order-packing budget show after import? #

Using the AirPost constants read on 13 October 2026, the recommended sender fee for a small parcel is €2.25 and the platform fee is €0.85. Together they are €3.10 before pure carrier transport. In an illustrative plan for 7 customer parcels, these two items total €21.70. This is a budget assumption, not a measured order volume. Agree the actual sender fee with the person packing. An AirPost label price already includes the platform fee, so do not add it again when starting from that price.

Those amounts are in euros because that is how these AirPost constants are expressed. They are not a sterling quote, an exchange rate or a VAT recovery calculation. Use the appropriate conversion and invoice treatment for your books. Add pure customer parcel transport, materials and agreed extra work separately. Maintain another part of the budget for buying and bringing in the batch, including duty and the agent’s actual charges.

AirPost lets a webshop place its stock with a local sender who prepares customer parcels. Check the arrangement on local fulfilment and agree the receiving instructions before sending the goods. Keep ownership, customs evidence and physical custody explicit. The first completed order should leave you able to identify the purchased product, its inward batch and its outgoing parcel, while the monthly import VAT evidence remains in the correct tax file.