Authorising a third party to act on your behalf

You can use a third party e.g. an agent or freight forwarder to complete entries on your behalf but you must ensure that you give clear written instructions to your agent about the goods to be exported and re-imported.

Direct representation – the third party makes an entry in your name and on your behalf but you are still responsible for any customs debt that may arise if an entry is incorrectly made.

Indirect representation – the third party makes an entry in their own name and they are jointly and severally liable with you for any customs debt that may arise if an entry is incorrectly made.

A representative must state that he is acting on behalf of the person represented, specify whether the representation is direct or indirect and be empowered to act as a representative.

A person who fails to state that he is acting in the name of or on behalf of another person or who states that he is acting in the name of or on behalf of another person without being empowered to do so shall be deemed to be acting in his own name and on his own behalf.

We may require any person stating that he is acting in the name of or on behalf of another person to produce evidence of his powers to act as a representative.

The third party must quote your OPR authorisation number on the export and import (SAD) declaration forms. You must also make sure that your third party uses the agreed rate of yield for your compensating products, or uses the method agreed with us to calculate it.

Always make sure that your third party sends you copies of the customs declarations for your records, and check that the correct CPC has been used and that the duty calculations are correct.

A third party may not enter goods on your behalf using the Customs Freight Simplified Procedures (CFSP) unless the third party and use of the simplified procedures are included in your authorisation.

When you renew your authorisation, remember to tell the third party your new number. If you do not do this, your imports may be delayed, or we may require security for the release of the goods.

Keeping records

As authorisation holder, you must keep records of all goods you export under the OPR arrangements. These must show:

what the goods were

when and to where you exported them

what processes were carried out on them

what the compensating products were

the rate of yield

the information necessary to calculate the duty relief and

and when and where they were re-imported.

You can normally use your commercial records, although we may ask you to adapt them to show the information you need to claim the relief.

If you do not re-import the finished goods yourself, or they are not re-imported by another person acting on your behalf, you must still keep records which show what happened to the goods up to the point where they passed out of your control.

If you intend to keep your records on a computer, you must advise us when you apply for authorisation, so that we can check that the records meet the requirements of OPR. You must also provide any technical information and assistance we need to carry out these checks.

You must keep all records for four years after the expiry of your authorisation and make them available to our officers on request.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 698