SPE12010 - Bill of Discharge
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-24)


This manual will be archived on 15 December 2025. For up-to-date guidance on special procedures, please refer to Pay less or no duty on goods you store, repair, process or temporarily use (GOV.UK) (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/pay-less-or-no-duty-on-goods-you-store-repair-process-or-temporarily-use) and Customs Technical Handbooks (GOV.UK) (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/customs-technical-handbooks). If you have feedback about this manual being archived, email xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx).

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The UK law requires a bill of discharge to be submitted for all discharges from Inward Processing and Authorised Use relief irrespective of the date of import.

For Authorised Use all the placements under the procedure for which the period of discharge ends, will need a bill of discharge which has to be submitted to the supervising customs office.

Where goods have been placed under a special procedure using 2 or more declarations by virtue of one authorisation, the placing or assignment of such goods or the products obtained therefrom under a subsequent customs procedure, or to their prescribed Authorised Use, shall be considered to discharge the procedure for the goods in question placed under the earliest of the declarations (hereinafter referred to as 'first in first out principle').

Further details are available in Special Procedures Pay less or no duty on goods you store, repair, process or temporaily use (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/pay-less-or-no-duty-on-goods-you-store-repair-process-or-temporarily-use).

Discharge of a Special Procedure

In cases other than the transit procedure and without prejudice a special procedure shall be discharged when the goods placed under the procedure, or the processed products, are placed under a subsequent customs procedure, have been taken out of GB customs territory, or have been destroyed with no waste remaining, or are abandoned. The rules of discharge of special procedure are the same, however the discharge of special procedure is also possible by destruction of goods with no waste remaining.

When goods are held under a special procedure, the assignment of those goods to another customs procedure or to re-export needs not be made by the holder of the authorisation for the original procedure.

Where the discharge of the Inward Processing takes place by release for free circulation, import duty must be paid. Regarding the calculation of the amount of the import duty, the rate that has to be applied must be the rate that is valid on the date the customs debt is incurred. Where applicable, import duty rate includes anti-dumping, countervailing duty, etc..

Where the calculation takes place for processed products, the customs value including the exchange rate and the other elements mentioned in this article are those that apply on the date on which the customs declaration was accepted for the goods which were placed under Inward Processing and processed.

For more information, see Special Procedures guidance Pay less or no duty on goods you store, repair, process or temporaily use (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/pay-less-or-no-duty-on-goods-you-store-repair-process-or-temporarily-use).

Note: Northern Ireland (NI) customs authorisations will continue to fall within the provisions of the Union Customs Code (UCC), as retained by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and CEMA 1979.