You have UK customers, or you are about to. Perhaps a large UK customer will only buy from you if you deliver DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), so the goods arrive with all UK duty and tax already dealt with. You want the goods to clear the border, the invoices to get paid, and the UK tax side to simply work, without becoming a UK tax expert yourself.
That is exactly what we do. We are UK Chartered Accountants and Tax Advisers who work only with overseas businesses trading in and with the UK, so the German or Austrian company selling into Britain is not a special case for us. It is the everyday.
Do you need to register for UK VAT as an overseas seller? Usually yes, from your first UK sale, with no threshold. We handle UK VAT registration and the VAT-linked GB EORI for you.
What a GB EORI number is, why it must be linked to your UK VAT number, and how to fix a standalone EORI that will not line up. We apply for the right GB EORI for you.
How UK customs duty works when you import goods, why it is usually a real cost, and how preferential origin can reduce it to zero. Practical customs support for overseas businesses.
How to value goods for UK import (Method 1, transaction value), when valuation gets complicated for intra-group movements, and why your customs value must stay in step with your transfer pricing.
Why the commodity code you classify under sets your UK duty and import VAT, what goes wrong when it is wrong, and how to get a legally binding classification from HMRC.
How preferential origin under the UK-EU agreement can cut your UK customs duty to zero, what the rules of origin require, and the proof you need to claim it.
Northern Ireland follows a different rulebook from Great Britain under the Windsor Framework. Why it is easy to get customs and VAT wrong there, and how we help.
How UK import VAT works, and how postponed VAT accounting (PVA) lets you account for it on your VAT return instead of paying at the border, so it does not become a cash cost.
What Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) means for UK VAT, why it creates a UK import and then a UK sale on which you must charge VAT, and why treating it as a zero-rated export is the classic mistake.
What your UK sales invoices must show once you are VAT registered and selling DDP, why you charge UK VAT rather than zero-rate, and how the commercial invoice for customs fits in.
Why an overseas importer must use a UK customs agent as indirect representative, why that makes some agents wary of postponed VAT accounting, and how to brief your agent so it goes right.
Been trading into the UK and worried something was missed? Late VAT registration, VAT-return errors, unrecovered import VAT and wrong customs entries can all be put right, often with money to recover.
What it costs to have us handle your UK VAT and imports, how quickly we get you set up, our simple client take-on, and our no-long-tie-in terms. Clear and upfront.
A simple checklist of everything involved in setting up to sell goods into the UK, showing what we handle for you and the little we need from you.
How we put right a German DDP business’s historic UK VAT position: backdated registration, penalty reduced to zero, and GBP 100,000 of import VAT recovered.
In short: if you sell goods to UK customers on DDP terms, you almost always need to register for UK VAT and get a GB EORI number, then charge UK VAT (currently 20%) on your UK sales. You do not usually need to set up a UK company. We handle the whole set-up and the ongoing returns.
This is the question we answer most often, and it is the one that trips people up. When you sell DDP, you are the importer of record. In UK VAT terms that is two things, not one:
So it is no longer a simple export. Once you see it as “the import, and then the UK sale”, everything else falls into place. We explain it with a picture, not with the law. See DDP explained: the two-transaction picture.
For a typical DDP seller, the set-up is:
Already been trading for a while and wondering if something was missed? That is common, and it is fixable. See Correcting past UK VAT and import errors.
Selling into Northern Ireland rather than Great Britain? The rules there are different. See moving goods into Northern Ireland.
Want to know the cost and how we work? See what it is like working with us (fees, onboarding and timescales) and your UK import set-up checklist. For a real example, read how we recovered GBP 100,000 of import VAT for a German DDP wholesaler.
Usually not. Most overseas businesses sell into the UK, register for UK VAT and trade perfectly well without a UK limited company. Setting one up can create obligations you do not need. We will tell you plainly whether a UK company helps you or just adds cost.
Author: Amanda Bowles (VAT).
Reading time: about 4 minutes.
Sources (verified 12 Aug 2026): overseas-seller VAT registration: VAT Notice 700/1, VATREG37150; GB EORI: Get an EORI number; postponed VAT accounting: Using postponed VAT accounting.
Almost always, yes. Overseas sellers with no UK establishment do not get the usual registration threshold, so you generally must register once you make taxable UK sales.
It does not have to be. With postponed VAT accounting you account for import VAT on your VAT return instead of paying it at the border and waiting to reclaim it, so it is cash-neutral for most businesses.
Quickly. If your goods are about to ship, tell us. We deal with urgent GB EORI and VAT registrations regularly.
Yes. We can run the whole relationship in German or English.
Tell us what you are shipping and when, and we will tell you exactly what you need and what it costs. Contact our team, or call us and speak to a specialist today.
Senior Manager
VAT
Associate Director
VAT
