Detailed guide: Management Support System: supporting guidance

Trade benefits

When a customs audit takes place, the local officer holds records of actual data entered and will raise assessments against traders on duties for imports not recognised by the trader’s records but actually declared to customs. This mainly arises where an appointed agent has inadvertently failed to make a correct declaration. It is the importer who is responsible for correctly declaring goods and only negligible liability is placed upon the agent. Larger traders with multi-site operations have particular difficulty in keeping administrative records of their imports due to the number of different locations employing different agents.

Providing records to traders means their work would be simplified and they would have a better chance of getting it right. Customs would need to spend less time chasing cases of inadvertent non-compliance. Traders own management information and administration systems would also benefit, for example, by giving accurate figures for total amount of duty paid against value of goods entered.

Information available in a report

Four standard reports are available covering:

• import item
• import entry
• import tax lines
• export item data

It is intended that the import and export item reports should be able to meet the requirements of the majority of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) customers.

HMRC will supply information such as entry date, commodity code, Customs Procedure Code, value of goods and tax paid as well as many others items of data, to a named responsible person of the business. The request should clearly indicate whether import data, export data or both is required, and provide an email address for receipt of the data.

Not all data items available on MSS are available for purchase in reports, since there is information on the system which cannot be released to traders because it could compromise HMRC control activities.

How data is dispatched

Data will be by email to the nominated representative. The normal format for electronic delivery will be a downloaded Excel spreadsheet. In agreeing this method of communication HMRC are not liable for the security of the information once it has been transmitted via email on the internet.

Charges

Please see the schedule of
Charges
(PDF, 50.4KB, 1 page)

.

Sample data

A single sample of 1 months’ recent import and export data in the standard entry item format will be made available to prospective customers to enable them to assess whether or not subscription to the scheme will be of benefit to them. Make a written request to MSS on business headed paper from a responsible person of the business, for example sole proprietor, partner or director, and include:

• name and address of your business
• email address where we can send the MSS report(s)
• whether import data export data or both is required
• VAT/Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) of your business

Minimum sign up

When a purchaser requests regular monthly reports we require them to sign up for a minimum period of 12 months. However, if a purchaser requires reports for less than a period of 12 months this will be treated as a ‘one-off’ request.

Getting copies

For queries regarding individual entries the MSS team are able to supply a company with a partial entry print. Data is held in the Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) MSS database for 4 years, entries older than 4 years won’t be available. To request a copy of an entry please complete a partial entry registration form
Partial entry request
(PDF, 38.9KB, 1 page)

accompanied with an original signed letter on business headed paper from the company owning the EORI number. The registration form and letter must be signed by a responsible person of the business, for example sole proprietor, CFO, CEO, partner, company secretary or director. This service is only available for importers and exporters.

How to identify branches/divisions

Currently some EOs use TURNs to enable them to identify imports/exports and revenue due against individual branches/divisions. As branches/divisions won’t qualify for an EORI number, this may cause inconvenience to economic operators set up in this way. As a result we have devised some solutions to assist EOs to associate declarations to individual branches/divisions. The solutions are optional and you may choose instead to adapt your systems to meet your own needs.

Option 1

To identify the branch importing, exporting or acting as declarant as appropriate when a customs declaration is made HMRC set up 2 Additional Information (AI) statement codes at header level in box 44 of the C88 declaration. These codes are:

• BR followed by a 3 digit numeric code for importers/exporters
• AG followed by a 3 digit numeric code for agents/declarants

It is likely the 3 digit numeric code you use will be the same as the current TURN suffix but you are free to choose any number you wish. It will be acceptable for both codes to appear on the same declaration if necessary.

You don’t need to notify customs in advance of the numbers you have chosen to identify your branches. However, you will need to maintain an adequate audit trail in your records and provide the information if requested by HMRC.

Four new EORI reports will be available to importers/exporters and agents/declarants as appropriate on a monthly basis:

• BR imports
• BR exports
• AG imports
• AG exports

These reports will be free of charge. They will list all entries made by you where the BR or AG code has been entered in box 44 to assist reconciliation to be carried out, in particular against C79s. If no code is entered in box 44, the entry won’t appear on the report.

Information on the reports will include entry number, date, EPU, declaration unique consignment reference (UCR), master UCR, agent’s reference and BR or AG code in box 44.

Reports will normally be sent within 15 working days of month end (for imports) and between the 15th working day and the end of the month following submission of the entry (for exports).

Option 2

This solution applies to importers only. This involves including your 3 digit number branch identifier number as part of the agent’s reference in box 7 of the C88 customs declaration for example TGR12867498/002 or 001 – FWAYU561829. As box 7 of the declaration also appears on the C79 (a form detailing each month all your imports where VAT has been charged) this may help reconciliation of your imports against branches and may be used in conjunction with or instead of the MSS report detailed above.

Please contact the MSS team to sign up for EORI reports but note the MSS team is not responsible for issuing EORI numbers.

Further information

For more information on the Data to the Trade scheme contact the Frontiers MSS team.

You can download an MSS Agreement Document
Agreement
(PDF, 324KB, 12 pages)

Standard Report Description
Standard report
(PDF, 164KB, 14 pages)