UK postponed import VAT: reconcile the statement to customs entries

For a UK VAT-registered business using postponed VAT accounting, a monthly statement is part of the return evidence. Reconcile it to the company's own customs entries before using its total. A missing entry, a delayed declaration, or an amount allocated to another registration can change which question the preparer needs to resolve.

Create a row for each import reference. Include the importer, EORI reference, import date, declaration date, goods value, postponed VAT, statement month, and proposed return period. Link the customs record rather than typing an unsupported description from the bank feed. Assign an owner to any shipment for which the customs paperwork has not arrived.

HMRC's guidance says to account for import VAT in the period covering the import date. A supplementary declaration appears on the statement for the month in which it is submitted. Those two dates can therefore require a reconciliation rather than a straight copy of the latest statement.

Download statements into the company's controlled records when available. HMRC limits routine online access to six months from publication and provides a separate process for older statements. A reminder assigned to an employee is more useful than assuming the customs agent will preserve every statement indefinitely.

Match every statement entry to an import, then check that every relevant import has a statement entry or a documented explanation. The second pass finds omissions that a statement-only review cannot detect. Keep agent service fees, customs duty, import VAT paid through another method, and postponed VAT in separate columns.

For a missing item, HMRC directs businesses to check relevant group or related-company statements and ask the customs agent to confirm the EORI used. Preserve that response with the reference in question. Do not create a second tax claim simply because the same shipment appears in both a broker's invoice bundle and a postponed statement.

Postponed import VAT due belongs in box 1; eligible recovery belongs in box 4; the value of the imported goods, excluding VAT, belongs in box 7. Recovery remains subject to the normal rules. A business with restricted input tax recovery should not force boxes 1 and 4 to agree merely to produce a nil net result.

Use an exception column for estimates, missing evidence, and corrections. The published guidance permits estimates in specified circumstances; a blank statement cell alone is not permission to invent an amount. Have the VAT reviewer identify the applicable procedure and preserve the calculation that supports it.

Save the submitted return, the reconciled statement, and the import register together. When a later document resolves an exception, show the original treatment and the proposed change beside it. This lets the preparer decide whether a subsequent-return adjustment or another correction procedure is appropriate without losing what was previously reported.