BorderLens
/ Updated 30 May 2026 / 17 min read

What Is HMRC's CDS? The Customs Declaration Service, Explained for Sellers

A plain-English guide to HMRC's Customs Declaration Service (CDS) for cross-border ecommerce — what it records, what it doesn't, PVA, BIRDS, and how to get your own data.

CDS HMRC UK customs Import VAT PVA Procedure Codes EORI cross-border ecommerce

If you sell across borders into or out of the UK, almost every parcel you ship generates a customs declaration somewhere — usually filed by your carrier or broker, often without you ever seeing it. Those declarations live in HMRC’s Customs Declaration Service (CDS). Understanding what CDS is, what it records, and how to get your own copy of the data is one of the highest-leverage things a finance or ops person can learn about cross-border trade.

This guide is written primarily from official HMRC / GOV.UK guidance, with each fact cited and dated below. It is a practical merchant explainer, not legal or tax advice. Customs rules change — check the “last verified” dates and confirm against GOV.UK before acting.

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What CDS is (and what it replaced)

The Customs Declaration Service (CDS) is HMRC’s single online platform for making both import and export declarations for goods moving into and out of the UK. HMRC describes it as “a resilient, reliable and adaptable IT platform” and “the first step of the UK border transformation.” (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

CDS replaced the legacy CHIEF system — Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight — which HMRC retired in stages:

  • Imports moved first. CDS has run for import declarations since 2018, and CHIEF closed for import declarations after 30 September 2022.
  • Exports moved later. All businesses could move export declarations to CDS from 18 March 2024, and CHIEF closed for export declarations on 4 June 2024. After that date, no customs declarations of any kind could be submitted through CHIEF.

(GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

A date worth getting right: you may still see an old “31 March 2023” export-closure date floating around in trade press and forum posts. That deadline was extended. The verified hard close for exports was 4 June 2024.

Why the change? HMRC’s stated rationale is modernisation: a single, more capable, more resilient platform aligned with current customs legislation, replacing a system that dated back decades. The practical upshot for sellers is that CDS uses a richer, more granular data model than CHIEF — which is exactly why the data is useful to you.

Glossary: the acronyms you actually need

TermWhat it means
CDSCustoms Declaration Service — HMRC’s platform for UK import and export declarations.
CHIEFCustoms Handling of Import and Export Freight — the legacy system CDS replaced.
EORIEconomic Operator Registration and Identification number — your business’s customs ID. UK numbers start GB (or XI for Northern Ireland). You need one to subscribe to CDS and to pull your own data.
MRNMovement Reference Number — the reference assigned to an accepted customs declaration. (See the editor’s note — we have not re-verified the precise MRN definition against a primary HMRC page for this draft.)
DUCRDeclaration Unique Consignment Reference — a trader-devised reference that identifies a single consignment’s declaration.
MUCRMaster Unique Consignment Reference — a “master” reference that links several DUCRs together (e.g. one container holding consignments from several exporters). Only one MUCR is allowed per export declaration.
Procedure CodeOn CDS, a 4-digit code (data element DE 1/10) describing the customs procedure for a goods item. Replaces CHIEF’s single 7-digit CPC.
Additional Procedure CodeA 3-digit code (DE 1/11) that tailors the treatment further. Up to 99 can be declared per goods item.
CPCCustoms Procedure Code — the older CHIEF term for a single 7-digit code. On CDS this is split into the 4-digit + 3-digit structure above.
PVAPostponed VAT Accounting — accounting for import VAT on your VAT Return instead of paying it at the border.
MPIVSMonthly Postponed Import VAT Statement — HMRC’s monthly record of the import VAT you postponed, used to complete your VAT Return.
BIRDSBulk Import Reduced Data Set — a simplification letting one import declaration cover many low-value parcels.

What CDS captures

A CDS declaration is far more structured than a single “shipping label” of data. Across the import and export declaration completion guides, HMRC organises the declaration into numbered data elements (DEs). The fields most relevant to a seller include:

  • Commodity code — the tariff classification that drives the duty rate.
  • Customs value and the valuation method used to arrive at it.
  • Duty and import VAT amounts assessed.
  • Procedure Code (DE 1/10) and Additional Procedure Codes (DE 1/11) — how the goods are being treated by customs (more on this below).
  • Country of origin and any preference claimed under a trade agreement.
  • Consignment references — the DUCR, and where relevant a MUCR linking several consignments together.
  • The parties — importer/exporter and their EORI numbers, plus the declarant and any representative.

On the procedure-code structure specifically — this is the cleanest verified difference from the old system. CHIEF used a single 7-digit CPC. CDS replaces it with:

  • a 4-digit Procedure Code in DE 1/10, made of a 2-digit Requested Procedure (what the goods are being entered to) plus a 2-digit Previous Procedure (what they’re being removed from) — only one per goods item; and
  • up to 99 separate 3-digit Additional Procedure Codes in DE 1/11, drawn from Appendix 2, with the permitted combinations governed by HMRC’s “Procedure to Additional Procedure Code correlation matrix.”

(GOV.UK CDS UK Trade Tariff Volume 3 declaration completion guides, last verified 2026-05-30.)

What we are not claiming: that every one of these fields is handed back to you, in full, in a tidy report. The reports HMRC offers (below) clearly include commodity codes, customs values, duty and tax breakdowns — but the exact field-level contents of each report should be confirmed against HMRC’s report specification before you build a process around a specific field. See the editor’s note.

What CDS does NOT capture — the procedure-code trap

This is the part most explainers skip, and it’s the most important thing for a seller to internalise.

CDS records customs declarations that were filed, classified by the customs procedure used — not every physical movement of your goods. The procedure code you (or your broker) declare doesn’t just describe a shipment; it defines what the record is. Two parcels physically crossing the same border in the same van can land in completely different places in the data depending on the procedure declared.

The clearest worked example is export vs. temporary export:

  • Requested Procedure 10 — “permanent export or dispatch.” This is the normal “we sold it, it’s leaving for good” export. HMRC’s guidance is explicit that these procedures are “for permanent export, not temporary exports or goods intended to return.” (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)
  • Requested Procedure 21 — “temporary export under outward processing.” Used when goods are “sent abroad for processing or repair with the intention to reimport them,” to claim duty relief on the processed goods when they come back. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

So if you send fabric to a manufacturer abroad to be made up, or send a sample/returned item out for repair, that movement — if declared correctly — sits under a temporary export / outward processing procedure (21), not under permanent export (10). If you go looking for “our exports” expecting to find everything that left the building under one procedure, you’ll miss these. They were declared — just under a different procedure, with different downstream duty and VAT consequences.

The general lesson: the procedure code is the lens. When you reconcile or audit CDS data, you have to read it by procedure, not as a flat list of “things that moved.” A gap in your “normal exports” isn’t necessarily a missing declaration — it may be a declaration filed under a procedure you weren’t looking at.

Imports vs exports on CDS

At a high level:

  • Imports. When goods arrive, an import declaration is filed on CDS. It carries the commodity code, customs value, origin, procedure codes, and the duty and import VAT assessed. Duty and import VAT are calculated from the declared value, classification and origin. You either pay at the border (often via a duty deferment account) or — for VAT-registered importers — postpone the import VAT (see PVA below).
  • Exports. An export declaration is filed when goods leave. It carries the commodity code, value, destination, procedure codes and consignment references (DUCR/MUCR). Exports generally don’t attract UK duty or VAT, but the procedure still matters enormously for how the movement is recorded and what reliefs apply on any return.

What a seller actually sees depends entirely on whether they file themselves or use an agent — covered in How to get your own CDS data.

Postponed VAT Accounting (PVA) and your monthly statement

If you import into the UK and you’re VAT-registered, Postponed VAT Accounting is one of the most useful CDS-linked mechanisms to understand.

What it is. PVA means you “declare and recover import VAT on the same VAT Return, rather than paying it upfront.” It’s optional — HMRC confirms “you do not need any approval to account for import VAT on your VAT Return.” (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

How it interacts with CDS. To use PVA, the import declaration must carry your VAT registration number at header level in Data Element 3/40 (and must not use the cash payment method G in DE 4/8). In other words, PVA is switched on at the declaration, so if a broker files for you, they need to set it up correctly. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

Your monthly statement (MPIVS). HMRC produces a Monthly Postponed Import VAT Statement, which “give[s] details of postponed import VAT on import declarations made under your EORI number.” It’s split into an activity summary plus a line-by-line list of entries. You use it to complete your VAT Return and as evidence for the VAT you reclaim. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

Timing and retention. Statements are “usually available to view by the 10th working day of the month,” and you can “only access a statement for 6 months from the date it’s published” — so you must download and keep your own copies. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

On the VAT Return, using PVA touches three boxes: Box 1 (import VAT due this period via PVA), Box 4 (import VAT reclaimed this period via PVA), and Box 7 (total value of imports, excluding VAT). (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

Low-value parcels: BIRDS and the £135 line

High-volume cross-border ecommerce runs into a practical problem: filing a full customs declaration for every individual sub-£135 parcel would be unworkable. HMRC’s answer is the Bulk Import Reduced Data Set (BIRDS).

What it is. BIRDS is a customs simplification that lets a declarant “declare one or more low value parcels in a single import declaration” with a reduced set of data compared to a full declaration. That smaller dataset is precisely why one declaration can cover many parcels — under the reduced data set, for example, a commodity code is not required. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

The £135 line. BIRDS applies where “the value of each consignment is £135 or less” — and where a consignment contains packets for more than one recipient, each recipient’s consignment must be £135 or less. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

Who uses it. Declarants authorised for the process (and sub-agents acting for them) — in practice the fast parcel operators and carriers moving large volumes of small parcels. Authorisation requires GB establishment, a good compliance history, and controls to keep prohibited goods out. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

Duty vs VAT — the nuance that trips people up. To use the bulk route, the goods must have “a relief from import duty available” and must not be liable to customs duty. And critically, the VAT treatment is not import VAT in the usual sense: low-value goods here are “subject to UK supply VAT, rather than import VAT,” and PVA cannot be used on supply-VAT goods. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

So the common shorthand — “no duty under £135” — is roughly right on the duty side for these consignments, but the VAT doesn’t disappear; it shifts to supply VAT collected at the point of sale. If you sell sub-£135 into GB, that distinction changes who accounts for the VAT and how.

How to get your own CDS data

You don’t have to be the one filing declarations to see your data — but you do need to set yourself up.

Subscribe to CDS, and have an EORI. Across HMRC’s data and statement services, the consistent requirements are: an EORI number starting GB or XI, a CDS subscription, and a Government Gateway user ID. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

The data report service. HMRC’s customs data report service lets you “request customs data reports from HMRC” drawn from “your import and export data from the Customs Declaration Service.” Reports are “set out in a similar way to Management Support System (MSS) reports” — the long-standing format trade-data users know. The available report types include: (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

  • Import item report — commodity codes, customs values and duty amounts per item.
  • Import header report — customs value, invoice amount, transport-cost summary.
  • Import tax lines report — a breakdown of customs duties, VAT and Excise Duty.
  • Export item report — commodity codes, values and export measures.

You can request up to 31 consecutive days of data per report, going back up to 4 years (the most recent ~2 days aren’t yet available). (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

The financial statements. Separately, your CDS financial dashboard is where you find your postponed import VAT statements, and HMRC also provides import VAT and duty adjustment statements for cases where “the correct value and duty due on goods is not clear at the time of import.” (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

Agent vs self-filing. Even if a customs agent files your declarations, you can still pull your own data — the report service is explicitly usable by “a declarant, like a customs agent” and “a third party… acting on behalf of someone else,” and the data is keyed to your EORI. One practical catch: “you cannot use an agent Government Gateway user ID to sign into this service” — you sign in as yourself. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

Why this matters if you sell DDP

If you sell Delivered Duty Paid, you’re the one who’s ultimately liable for duties and import taxes — and the one being billed by carriers for them. CDS data is the independent record of what was actually declared at the border, which is what makes it valuable:

  • Reconcile what was declared against what you were billed. Carrier invoices and the underlying customs declaration don’t always agree. Your own CDS data is the reference point for checking.
  • Spot misclassification. The declared commodity code drives the duty rate. If the wrong code is being used across a product line, it shows up in the item-level data — and it’s recurring money, not a one-off.
  • Find preference (FTA) opportunities. If your goods could qualify for a preferential rate under a trade agreement but preference wasn’t claimed, the declaration data is where the gap is visible.
  • Hold the audit trail. MRNs, procedure codes, values and origin in CDS data form the evidence base if HMRC ever asks — or if you want to claim a repayment of overpaid duty (for example via a C285 claim).

The honest framing: CDS data tells you what was declared. Reconciling it against what you were charged, and against what you should have paid, is real work — and, because of the procedure-code point above, you have to read it by procedure rather than as a flat ledger. But it’s the single most authoritative dataset a cross-border seller has about their own customs footprint. (This section is analysis/framing, not a direct HMRC citation.)

Common misconceptions

“CDS shows everything that physically left or entered the country.” No. CDS shows declarations, classified by procedure code. A movement declared under temporary export / outward processing (procedure 21) won’t appear among your “permanent exports” (procedure 10). Read CDS data by procedure.

“Goods I send abroad for processing are just exports.” Not for customs purposes. Goods sent abroad for processing or repair and intended to come back are declared under a temporary export / outward processing procedure (21), specifically so you can claim duty relief on re-import — a different record with different consequences from a permanent export. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

“There’s no VAT on sub-£135 parcels into GB.” The duty is generally relieved on consignments not exceeding £135, but the VAT doesn’t vanish — for low-value imports it shifts to UK supply VAT collected at sale, and PVA can’t be used on it. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

“PVA is something HMRC has to approve.” No — PVA needs no approval; it’s switched on at the declaration (your VAT number in DE 3/40). (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

“My broker files everything, so I can’t see the data.” You can. With your own EORI and a CDS subscription you can pull your import/export reports and financial statements yourself — the data is keyed to your EORI, not your broker’s. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

“CHIEF is still around as a backup.” No. CHIEF closed for imports after 30 September 2022 and for exports on 4 June 2024. CDS is the only route. (GOV.UK, last verified 2026-05-30.)

Official sources

All facts above rest on these primary GOV.UK / HMRC pages. Dates are when each page was last verified for this guide (2026-05-30); the bracketed date is the page’s own “last updated” stamp where shown.

  1. HMRC, Customs Declaration Service (collection) https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/customs-declaration-service

  2. HMRC, Customs Declaration Service to become UK’s single customs platform https://www.gov.uk/government/news/customs-declaration-service-to-become-uks-single-customs-platform

  3. HMRC, HMRC urges businesses to move to new customs IT platform now to continue trading https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hmrc-urges-businesses-to-move-to-new-customs-it-platform-now-to-continue-trading

  4. HMRC, Customs Declaration Service is open for all export migration https://www.gov.uk/government/news/customs-declaration-service-is-open-for-all-export-migration

  5. HMRC, Notice to exporters 2024/12: export declarations move from CHIEF to CDS from 4 June 2024 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-to-exporters-202412-export-declarations-move-from-chief-to-cds-from-4-june-2024

  6. HMRC, CDS UK Trade Tariff Volume 3 — Import Declaration Completion Guide (procedure codes, DE 1/10 and DE 1/11) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cds-uk-trade-tariff-volume-3-import-declaration-completion-guide/group-1-message-information-including-procedure-codes

  7. HMRC, CDS UK Trade Tariff Volume 3 — Export Declaration Completion Guide (DUCR/MUCR, Group 2 references) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-trade-tariff-cds-volume-3-export-declaration-completion-guide/group-2-references-of-messages-document-certificates-and-authorisations

  8. HMRC, Appendix 1: DE 1/10 — Requested Procedure 10 (permanent export or dispatch) [updated 29 April 2026] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/appendix-1-de-110-requested-and-previous-procedure-codes/requested-procedure-10-permanent-export-or-dispatch

  9. HMRC, Appendix 1: DE 1/10 — Requested Procedure 21 (temporary export under outward processing) [updated 29 April 2026] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/appendix-1-de-110-requested-and-previous-procedure-codes/requested-procedure-21-temporary-export-under-outward-processing

  10. HMRC, Check when you can account for import VAT on your VAT Return (PVA, DE 3/40) [updated 16 June 2025] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-when-you-can-account-for-import-vat-on-your-vat-return

  11. HMRC, Complete your VAT Return to account for import VAT (Boxes 1/4/7) [updated 10 March 2023] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/complete-your-vat-return-to-account-for-import-vat

  12. HMRC, Get your postponed import VAT statement (10th working day; 6-month retention) [updated 4 July 2024] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-your-postponed-import-vat-statement

  13. HMRC, Understanding your monthly postponed import VAT statements https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-your-monthly-postponed-import-vat-statements

  14. HMRC, Apply to import multiple low value parcels on one declaration (BIRDS, £135) [updated 3 December 2025] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-to-import-multiple-low-value-parcels-on-one-declaration

  15. HMRC, Technical handbook on Bulk Import Reduced Data Set (BIRDS) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/technical-handbook-on-bulk-import-reduced-data-set-birds/introduction-to-bulk-import-reduced-data-set-birds

  16. HMRC, Get customs data for import and export declarations (customs data report service / MSS-style reports) [updated 25 March 2026] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-customs-data-for-import-and-export-declarations

  17. HMRC, Get your import VAT and duty adjustment statements https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-your-import-vat-and-duty-adjustment-statements

  18. HMRC, Get access to the Customs Declaration Service https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-access-to-the-customs-declaration-service

Secondary / framing sources

No trade-press or freight-forwarder source was relied on for any factual claim in this guide. Framing and analysis (e.g. the “why this matters to DDP sellers” section) are BorderLens’s own and are flagged as such in-text.

Notes for the editor — claims to double-check

These were not fully verified against a primary HMRC page during research and should be confirmed (or softened) before publishing:

  1. Precise definition of MRN (Movement Reference Number). Stated in the glossary at a high level but not pinned to a specific HMRC page in this pass. Confirm the exact definition and where it appears on a CDS declaration before treating the glossary line as authoritative.
  2. Standalone DUCR definition. The MUCR definition is verified (Export Completion Guide, Group 2). The DUCR description (trader-devised, DE 2/1, type code “DCR”, mandatory) was only partially corroborated — verify against the same Group 2 guide before asserting the detail.
  3. Exact field-level contents of each data report. We’ve cited the report names and the headline fields HMRC lists (commodity code, customs value, duty, tax breakdown). We have not confirmed that each report contains MRN, country of origin, or preference at field level. Confirm against HMRC’s “what’s in each report” specification before any claim that a specific field is returned.
  4. “Why HMRC replaced CHIEF” rationale. The modernisation/resilience framing is supported by HMRC’s own description of CDS, but the specific motivations stated are partly paraphrased — keep them general unless tied to a direct quote.
  5. Duty deferment / C79 certificates on the financial dashboard. Mentioned only lightly. If you want to expand the financial-dashboard section, verify the full list of statement types against the dashboard guidance.
  6. Procedure-code currency. HMRC’s procedure-code appendices and the correlation matrix are updated periodically (Appendix pages stamped 29 April 2026; matrix last updated mid-2025). Re-check the live pages before publication in case codes have moved.

Status: research draft for human review. Not for auto-publish. UK English throughout. Keep BorderLens mentions light — the value here is the explainer.