A commodity code (or HS commodity code) is a ten-digit number that is used to classify different types of goods for both imports and exports between Great Britain and the EU.
Commodity codes allow you to find out how much VAT and duty you’ll be charged for the goods that you are importing or exporting. They will also enable you to find out if you will need an import licence in order to transport your goods and whether you are eligible for any duty reliefs.
You will need commodity codes to complete your customs declarations and the appropriate paperwork that you will be required to submit to conduct trade.
How to Find My Commodity Code
You can find your commodity code using the UK Global Online Tariff. There are 21 different sections, each containing different chapters, headings and subheadings. You need to select the appropriate information in order to ensure that your commodity codes are correct. This means knowing about the products that you are transporting.
For example, you may be importing some orange marmalade that has a 40% sugar content by weight. If this were the case, you would need to go to section IV: Prepared foodstuffs: beverages, spirits and vinegar; tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes.
You would then need to go to the section titled “Preparations of vegetables, fruit, nuts or other parts of plants. Giving you the code: 20
You will then click on “Jams, fruit jellies, marmalades, fruit or nut puree and fruit or nut pastes, obtained by cooking, whether or not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter: 07
Then, if we say that the marmalade has not gone through a homogenised preparation, you would click “other”: 91
You will then click on citrus fruit, as the marmalade is made from oranges
As it has 40% sugar content by weight you will click on “with a sugar content exceeding 30% by weight” : 10
Finally you will click on “Containing less than 70% by weight of sugar” : 10
Once you put the entire code together the commodity code for importing will be 2007911010
The commodity code for exporting will not include the final two digits and will be 20079110
How to Avoid Getting it Wrong
Tariff classification can be extremely complex and getting it wrong could result in you receiving a fine, even if a third party classified your goods for you.
CustomsLink offers a service that will sort out your commodity codes for you. Our team will also provide a detailed report to the HMRC to support the classification of your goods, if this is required.
