Check if you can claim a waiver for goods brought into Northern Ireland

You may be able to claim a waiver for goods brought into Northern Ireland so that you do not have to pay duty on those goods.

Last updated 5 January 2026

To claim a waiver so you do not have to pay duty on goods you bring into Northern Ireland from Great Britain or countries outside the UK and EU, you’ll need to check:

non-customs de minimis state aid you’ve received outside of the customs duty waiver scheme
de minimis state aid you’ve received as part of the customs duty waiver scheme

De minimis aid could include subsidised contracts, loans or grants from organisations like Invest NI and NI Direct.

If you do not have experience in customs or would like to find out more information, the Trader Support Service can support you with this process.

Who can claim

You can claim as a business as part of a ‘single undertaking’.

Your de minimis aid allowance applies to all parts of your organisation involved in bringing goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain or from outside the EU. This may include more than one business. This group of businesses is known as the ‘undertaking’. An undertaking could be a sole trader, a company, a partnership, or any combination of these.

If you are a sole trader, you still need to create a single undertaking if you wish to claim a Customs Duty waiver. If there is more than one business within the undertaking, you’ll need to decide which business will be the undertaking administrator (lead). The undertaking administrator is responsible for managing the online account and reporting non-customs de minimis aid you’ve received outside of the customs duty waiver scheme.

When you can claim

You can claim a waiver for duty on goods which might otherwise be charged ‘at risk’ tariffs if you:

have not exceeded the allowances at the point your import declaration is submitted
will not exceed the allowance for your sector by making a claim

You can claim for goods you bring into:

Northern Ireland from Great Britain
Northern Ireland from countries outside of the UK and the EU — in this case, you claim a waiver for the difference between the UK and the EU tariff

Checking you’re within your allowance

De minimis state aid awards for undertakings in the ‘other’ and ‘agricultural’ sectors are now calculated over a rolling 3-year basis.

When you make a claim under the Customs Duty Waiver Scheme, you must ensure that you will not exceed your de minimis threshold, taking into account all claims dating back 3 years from that date.

HMRC is working as quickly as possible to update the Customs Duty Waiver Scheme digital service to reflect this change. The de minimis state aid balance you are seeing reflects the total amount of de minimis state aid you have been awarded over the current and previous 2 tax years. In the meantime, you must keep your own records to ensure you are within the limit over a rolling 3-year period.

This does not apply to the ‘Fisheries and Aquaculture’ sector where de minimis state aid must continue to be calculated on a 3 tax year basis.

The maximum allowances for each sector are:

30,000 euros over 3 tax years for the fisheries and aquaculture sector
50,000 euros over a 3-year rolling period for the agricultural primary production sector
300,000 euros over a 3-year rolling period for all other sectors

The maximum allowance includes all de minimis state aid you claim over a period of 3 rolling years or tax years — dependent on which sector your undertaking falls under. This includes de minimis state aid which is not related to Customs Duty, such as Employment Allowance.

If a business in your undertaking is involved in more than one sector where a lower allowance applies, the lowest allowance will apply for your whole undertaking.

De minimis state aid could include subsidised contracts, loans or grants. If you are unsure if an aid you claim is counted as de minimis state aid you should contact the granting authority.

By claiming a waiver for Customs Duty, you are making a legal declaration that your claim will not result in you exceeding the allowance for your sector.

A business is eligible to claim a waiver for duty because the amount of de minimis state aid they received is below the sector allowance.

Example

Example 1 — sector: other

Claim date: 5 February 2025

Customs Duty waiver claim amount: €25,000

Relevant period: Review all de minimis aid received from 5 February 2022 to 4 February 2025

Previous de minimis state aid received during this period:

10 March 2022: €80,000 in Customs Duty waiver + €10,000 non-customs de minimis state aid
25 July 2023: €100,000 in Customs Duty waiver
15 January 2025: €50,000 in Customs Duty waiver

Total previous de minimis state aid: €80,000 + €10,000 + €100,000 + €50,000 = €240,000

Cumulative total with new award: €240,000 + €25,000 = €265,000

€265,000 is below the €300,000 limit. This means that the €25,000 Customs Duty waiver claim can be made on 5 February 2025.

Example 2 — sector: fisheries and aquaculture

Claim date: 5 February 2025

Customs Duty waiver claim amount: €2,000

Relevant period: Assess all de minimis aid received in the current and preceding 2 tax years.

Previous de minimis state aid received during this period:

tax year 2022 to 2023: €5,000 in Customs Duty waiver
tax year 2023 to 2025: €2,000 in Customs Duty waiver
tax year 2024 to 2025: €500 in non-customs de minimis state aid + €500 in non-customs de minimis state aid

Total previous de minimis state aid: €5,000 + €2,000 + €500 + €500 = €8,000

Cumulative total with new award: €8,000 + €2,000 = €10,000

€10,000 is below the €30,000 limit. This means that the €2,000 Customs Duty waiver claim can be made on 5 February 2025.

Examples of when a business is not eligible to claim a waiver

Example 1 — sector: other

Claim date: 23 March 2025

Customs Duty waiver claim amount: €25,000

Relevant period: All de minimis aid received from 23 March 2022 to 22 March 2025

Previous de minimis state aid received during this period:

30 April 2022: €100,000 in Customs Duty waiver + €20,000 in non-customs de minimis state aid
25 July 2023: €110,000 in Customs Duty waiver
15 January 2025: €60,000 in Customs Duty waiver

Total previous de minimis state aid: €100,000 + €20,000 + €110,000 + €60,000 = €290,000

Cumulative total with new award: €290,000 + €25,000 = €315,000

€315,000 exceeds the €300,000 limit. The €25,000 Customs Duty waiver claim cannot be made as it would breach the de minimis threshold.

Example 2 — sector: fisheries and aquaculture

Claim date: 23 March 2025

Customs Duty waiver claim amount: €2,000

Relevant period: Assess all de minimis aid received in the current and preceding 2 tax years (that is, tax years 2022 to 2023, 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025)

Previous de minimis state aid received during this period:

tax year 2022 to 2023: €15,000 in Customs Duty waiver
tax year 2023 to 2024: €10,000 in Customs Duty waiver
tax year 2024 to 2025: €3,000 in Customs Duty waiver + €1,000 in non-customs de minimis state aid

Total previous de minimis state aid: €15,000 + €10,000 + (€3,000 + €1,000) = €29,000

Cumulative total with new award: €29,000 + €2,000 = €31,000

€31,000 exceeds the €30,000 limit. The €2,000 Customs Duty waiver claim cannot be made as it would exceed the de minimis threshold for fisheries and aquaculture.

Before you claim

You should subscribe to HMRC’s online service so that you can register your undertaking.

To subscribe, you’ll need to:

Get an Economic Operators Registration and Identification number (EORI number), unless you already have one. You’ll also need the EORI number of any other business in your undertaking. If you do not have an EORI number, the online service will take you through the process of getting one.
Give HMRC your company email address. You’ll need to do this for verification purposes.
Have a Government Gateway user ID and password. If you do not have a user ID, you can create one the first time you subscribe.

The EORI number must be the one linked to the Government Gateway user ID you used when you got an EORI number.

Start now

Registering a single undertaking

After subscribing to the online service, you’ll need to register your undertaking. This will make the EORI number you subscribed with the undertaking administrator.

You’ll need to tell HMRC which industry sector your undertaking is involved in.

If you operate in more than one sector, you should select the sector which best fits the goods you normally move or intend to move under the scheme.

The service was updated in December 2025 to require undertakings to select a specific sector that applies to their undertaking.

This is in line with the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities (NACE).

If you have not yet done this, you will be asked to when you sign in.

If you do not select a specific sector, your undertaking will not be able to use the waiver until you do so.

After registering, you’ll need to add details of the businesses within your undertaking to your account. You’ll then be given an account reference number.

If you are in a VAT group, you should add all the businesses that are in that VAT group to your undertaking.

To do this you’ll need the following details for each business: