No deal plans 'quite a challenge'
The department is
racing to finish the already-planned replacement of the CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight) system with CDS before the UK leaves the bloc in March 2019, but has been forced to admit that the two will have to work concurrently.
Thompson said the first release (for selected business and certain imports) launched on time, on 14 August, and the second release (for further imports) is on track for autumn. However, the third release (for exports) will be pushed back from January to March.
“Therefore, the strategy of using CHIEF for export and CDS for import is one which needs to be tested,” he said.
The department is five weeks into an eight-week test to see if CHIEF can scale up and handle the increased workload, he said, adding the test was, “so far, good”.
HMRC only discussed it with external software devs after gov.UK released technical notes...
But a further challenge faces the department, as the government
last month announced its plans for customs and VAT if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal.
This will see acquisition VAT – for movements between the EU and UK – replaced by import VAT. This is usually collected earlier, and so is a cashflow disadvantage to businesses – to combat this the government said it would introduce postponed accounting for all import VAT.