Apply for a customs comprehensive guarantee to cover customs debts
Source: gov.uk (2025-02-03)

Use a customs comprehensive guarantee to cover Customs Duty, excise duty and import VAT when you regularly import goods or use common and Union transit.

You’ll need to:

Check what type of guarantee you need (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/import-and-export-customs-comprehensive-guarantees-ccgs) if you’re not sure.

Check who can apply for a customs comprehensive guarantee.

Estimate the amount of debt your guarantee needs to cover.

Check if you can reduce the amount your guarantor needs to provide.

Apply for authorisation to use a guarantee.

Get a guarantor to cover your debt.

Who can apply

To get this type of guarantee you need to:
- be established in the UK
- have no serious or repeated infringements of customs or tax rules in the past 3 years
- have no record of serious criminal offences related to your business activities in the past 3 years
To submit your application for authorisation to use a customs comprehensive guarantee you must be a company official of the business. Depending on your type of business you’ll need to be a:
- company official such as company director or company secretary
- sole proprietor
- trustee
- partner
How to estimate the amount of guarantee

You’ll also need to provide an estimate of the amount of debt to be covered by the guarantee. This will be your guarantee limit.

If you go over the limit, you’ll need to increase your guarantee. Your goods could be stopped at the border if you do not do this.

Duty deferment

When you apply for customs comprehensive guarantee authorisation, you can apply for a duty deferment account as part of the same application process. Find out more about applying for a duty deferment account (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-account-to-defer-duty-payments-when-you-import-or-release-goods-into-great-britain).

For duty deferment, work out how much Customs Duty, excise duty and import VAT will be chargeable. You’ll need to give the maximum monthly amount. This is known as ‘actual debt’.

Transit

When using common and Union transit, work out the maximum amount your guarantee will need to cover (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-the-amount-of-guarantee-needed-for-common-and-union-transit). This debt is not chargeable if all transit movements are discharged correctly and is known as ‘potential debt’.

Customs special procedures or temporary storage

When goods are under temporary storage or special procedures (like inward processing, Temporary Admission, or customs warehousing), work out the maximum amount that your guarantee will need to cover for Customs Duty and excise duty.

These debts are not chargeable straight away and are known as ‘potential debt’.

Reduce the amount your guarantor needs to provide

You can apply to reduce the amount your guarantor needs to provide to 50% or 30% of the potential debt covered by your customs comprehensive guarantee.

You can also apply for a full waiver reducing the amount your guarantor needs to provide for your potential debt to 0%.

You can do this by uploading a completed form CCG1F (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d6d2b0440f0b607bfcf3e5e/CCG1F.pdf) (PDF, 551 KB, 8 pages) and supporting documents with your online guarantee application.

For at least the last 3 years (where possible), you’ll need to provide:
- financial statements
- forecasts
- management accounts
- loan agreements
- auditors’ reports
The size of the CCG1F and supporting documents you upload cannot be more than 41 megabytes (MB) in total. You cannot upload ZIP files.

If you’re an Authorised Economic Operator for customs

As an Authorised Economic Operator (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/authorised-economic-operator-certification#types-of-aeo-authorisation-and-their-benefits) for customs you will have either:
- Authorised Economic Operator Customs Simplification (AEOC) status
- both AEOC and Authorised Economic Operator Safety and Security (AEOS) status
The level of guarantee your guarantor needs to provide for Customs Duty covered by your duty deferment account is reduced to 30% of the duty amount.

If you want to apply for a full waiver reducing the amount your guarantor needs to provide for your potential debt to 0%, you must include your AEO details in your authorisation application.

You do not need to complete form CCG1F.

Deferring import VAT or excise duty

Other schemes are available that can reduce the amount of guarantee you need to provide, if you’re deferring import VAT (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-and-import-duty-reducing-financial-guarantees) or excise duty (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/excise-payment-security-system-epss-authorisation-criteria).

Apply for authorisation

What you’ll need

To complete your application you’ll need your business’s:
- EORI number — you can get an EORI number (https://www.gov.uk/eori) if you do not already have one
- name associated with your EORI number
- company registration number (if this applies)
- UK address associated with your EORI number
- correspondence address
- VAT number (if this applies)
- Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) certificate number (if this applies)
- duty deferment account number (if this applies)
- company directors’ and officials’ details, including date of birth
- person responsible for customs authorisations, their details and practical customs experience
- estimated debt
You may also need:
- records of any times when your business has not followed customs or tax rules in the last 3 years
- details of checks and measures in place to make sure your business complies with customs and tax rules
- financial records if you want to apply for a reduction in the level of guarantee you need to provide
Submit your application

You must be authorised to use a customs comprehensive guarantee.

You’ll need to sign in to apply for a customs comprehensive guarantee authorisation. If you do not already have sign in details, you can create them when you first apply.

Apply for customs comprehensive guarantee authorisation (https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/submissions/new-form/apply-customs-comprehensive-guarantee).

When completing the application, you must select the part of the UK where you’ll use the guarantee.

To use a guarantee in both Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland, you should submit separate applications.

If you need a guarantee to declare goods to common or Union transit in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland, you can apply for a single customs comprehensive guarantee authorisation if all the transit declarations will be made using the EORI number linked to your customs comprehensive guarantee. Select:
- Great Britain if you will use an EORI number starting GB
- Northern Ireland if you will use an EORI number starting XI
If you’re applying for a reduction in the level of guarantee your guarantor needs to provide and you do not have AEOC or both AEOC and AEOS status, the service will ask you to upload a completed CCG1F and supporting documents.

The CCG1F and supporting documents you upload must not exceed 41MB in total. You cannot upload ZIP files.

After you apply

HMRC will review your application. We’ll let you know if you can get any reductions and tell you the amount of the guarantee you’ll need. You’ll need to get a guarantor to cover this amount (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-a-guarantor-for-your-customs-comprehensive-guarantee).

If you do not get authorisation

If you do not meet the conditions when you apply for a customs comprehensive guarantee you can use individual guarantees (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-an-individual-guarantee-to-cover-customs-debts) to cover each customs debt.

If you stop meeting the conditions for reducing your guarantee

If your circumstances change and you do not meet the conditions for a reduced guarantee, you must change your guarantee amount so it’s no longer reduced.

If this happens, you must:
- tell HMRC you need to change your guarantee amount
- calculate the estimated Customs Duty and import VAT from your imports and check your guarantee always covers them
You can also use an individual guarantee (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-an-individual-guarantee-to-cover-customs-debts) for one-off or high-value imports to avoid going over your customs comprehensive guarantee.

HMRC will regularly check the use of guarantees and will tell you if your guarantee amount is incorrect.