If your business trades with EU, you can hire a person or business that need to be established in the EU, to deal with customs for you, such as:

• freight forwarders
• customs agents or brokers
• fast parcel operators

What they can do for you (and who will be liable) depends on:

• the services they provide
• what you want them to do
• the commercial agreement you have with them

Freight forwarders

move goods around the world for importers.

A freight forwarder will arrange clearing your goods through customs. They’ll have the right software to communicate with HMRC’s systems.

Customs agent or broker

make sure your goods clear through customs.

They can be hired to act as a:

• direct representative
• indirect representative

Fast parcel operators

transport documents, parcels and freight across the world in a specific time frame. They can deal with customs for you, as part of their delivery, but they cannot act on your behalf without written instructions from you.

The instruction must show whether they’re acting for you directly or indirectly. HMRC will only ask for evidence of the authorisation if we need it.

Get someone to act

You can hire a person or business to act in your name directly or you can get someone to act for you in their own name