Moving goods to and from Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland sits inside the United Kingdom and inside the EU's customs arrangements at the same time, because it shares a land border with Ireland. A shipment moving into or out of Northern Ireland doesn't always follow the same path as one moving into or out of Great Britain.

An EORI number (Economic Operators Registration and Identification number) is the number a business uses to be identified in customs systems when goods cross a border, as explained under EORI Number. A business trading only with Great Britain normally uses a number that starts with GB. A business moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or between Northern Ireland and the EU, may need a separate number that starts with XI instead.

Which number is needed depends on where the goods are going and where they're coming from, not on where the business itself is based.

Goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland usually need a declaration, in the same way as goods moving to or from any country outside the UK. The Trader Support Service is a free support service set up to help a business work through that paperwork.

What it helps with

The service guides a business through the steps a Northern Ireland movement involves, and it can complete and submit the customs declaration on the business's behalf. It also gives training and guidance on the specific rules that apply to Northern Ireland, which differ from a movement between Great Britain and a country outside the UK.

Using the service does not remove a business's own responsibility for the information given. A business still needs to know what it is sending, where it is going and what the goods are, because that is what any declaration is built from.

Who it is for

Any business moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland can register with the service, whether it is already importing and exporting elsewhere or doing this kind of movement for the first time. Registering gives access to the guidance and to the declaration support.

Where a business wants the detail behind a particular declaration, the Customs Declarations guide sets out what a declaration contains and what a business needs to keep on file once it is made.

How the Windsor Framework affects goods trade

Northern Ireland sits in a different position from the rest of the UK when goods move to and from the EU. An arrangement that GOV.UK calls the Windsor Framework keeps Northern Ireland aligned with EU rules for goods, so trade in goods between Northern Ireland and an EU country does not cross a customs border in the way that trade between Great Britain and the EU does.

This is why a business moving goods between Northern Ireland and an EU country follows a different path from a business moving the same goods between Great Britain and the EU. The paperwork a business meets depends on which side of that line its goods are crossing, so it is worth checking which set of rules applies before assuming the Great Britain rules carry over.

The XI prefix on a VAT number

A business registered for VAT in Northern Ireland that trades in goods with the EU uses the prefix XI in front of its VAT number, in place of the GB prefix used elsewhere in the UK. An EU supplier or customer sees that prefix and knows the business is trading under Northern Ireland's arrangements for goods.

The XI prefix is used for goods transactions with the EU. For VAT purposes outside that, a Northern Ireland business keeps its ordinary UK VAT registration and VAT number.

For the detail of how Customs Duty and import VAT are charged on goods more generally, see Customs Duty and Import VAT.

Goods that start in Northern Ireland and move on to Great Britain do not always need the same paperwork as goods arriving from outside the UK. The rule turns on where the goods began and whether they are already in free circulation within Northern Ireland, which itself follows the arrangements set out for it.

What counts as qualifying Northern Ireland goods

The idea behind "qualifying Northern Ireland goods" is that goods already sitting freely in Northern Ireland are treated as domestic movements once they continue on to Great Britain. The goods have, in effect, already cleared the border they needed to clear.

The import declaration exemption

Where goods qualify, the business moving them does not need to make an import declaration for that onward leg into Great Britain in the way it would for goods arriving directly from a country outside the UK. The paperwork a business does still need, and whether a particular consignment qualifies, depends on how the goods arrived in Northern Ireland in the first place, so it is worth checking the specific arrangement before relying on the exemption. The general pattern of who makes a customs declaration and what it contains is set out on the Customs Declarations page.

A business that also imports goods directly into Great Britain from outside the UK follows the ordinary rules for an EORI number, a commodity code and a customs declaration, covered on the EORI Number and Commodity Codes and the Trade Tariff pages.

Northern Ireland sits at the edge of several sets of rules at once, and this page can only cover the parts that come up most often: the EORI number starting with XI, the Trader Support Service, and how trade with the EU works under the Windsor Framework. A business moving goods regularly, or moving goods that fall under a specific scheme or licence, will usually find its own case has a detail this page does not reach.

GOV.UK keeps the full set of rules for Northern Ireland, including the cases this page does not cover, and updates it as the rules change. Where a situation does not match what is set out here, that is the place to check the rule as it currently stands.

For the steps that apply everywhere else in the United Kingdom, the EORI Number guide and the Customs Declarations guide cover the general position for Great Britain.