HC Customs is a UK post-clearance customs compliance platform designed for importers and customs brokers. It connects directly to HMRC CDS via OAuth2, allowing businesses to reconcile declarations, build audit defence evidence, track IP/OP inventory, and manage duty drawback claims.

How long does HMRC have to audit a customs declaration?

HMRC has up to 4 years to query any import declaration under post-clearance amendment rules. HC Customs retains your compliance evidence for the full 4-year audit window.

Does HC Customs integrate with HMRC CDS?

Yes. HC Customs connects directly to the HMRC Customs Declaration Service (CDS) via OAuth2, pulling live declaration data so you can reconcile every MRN against your own records in real time.

What is a Customs Clearance Instruction (CCI)?

A CCI is a structured PDF instruction issued to your customs agent specifying incoterm, customs value, commodity code, and procedure. HC Customs automatically checks whether the HMRC declaration matches what you instructed, creating an instant audit trail.

Terms of Service — HC Customs Compliance Portal

1. About These Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the HC Customs Compliance Portal ("the Portal"), a software-as-a-service platform operated by HC Customs Ltd ("we", "us", "our"), a company registered in England and Wales. By registering for or using the Portal you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Portal.

CompanyHC-Customs Limited

Company number15738794

Registered officeAshley Park House, 42–50 Hersham Road, 1st Floor, Walton-on-Thames, England, KT12 1RZ

ICO RegistrationC1916277

HMRC AML SupervisionXEML00000211311

Contactcontact@hc-customs.com

2. The Service

The Portal provides tools to help UK importers, exporters, and customs intermediaries with customs filing and compliance, including:

Preparation and submission of Safety and Security (ENS) and Northern Ireland declarations through the Trader Support Service (TSS)
Declaration management and MRN tracking
CDS (Customs Declaration Service) data import and reconciliation
Audit defence scoring and evidence pack generation
Inward/Outward Processing (IP/OP) inventory and Bill of Discharge management
Duty drawback opportunity identification
HMRC correspondence tracking
AI-assisted reading of customs documents to propose declaration data (see section 4)

Declarations are submitted in one of two ways. Where you file using your own TSS account, you make the declaration and the Portal is the tool you use to do it. Where you have appointed HC-Customs Limited as your customs representative under a signed Client Authorisation, we prepare and submit declarations on your behalf, within the scope of that appointment (see section 3). The Portal does not provide legal advice or guarantee any particular outcome with HMRC.

3. Acting as Your Customs Representative

We act for you only under a signed Client Authorisation, which sets out the services covered, how long the appointment lasts, how import VAT is to be handled and who bears the cost of amendments. Unless agreed otherwise in writing, we act as your direct representative and you remain the declarant.

We act on your instructions, except that we will not make a declaration we know or suspect to be untrue, and we may decline any instruction that would require one. Before acting, we verify that your business is established and operating as described, and we verify anyone who contacts us on your behalf whom we do not already know.

If a declaration has to be amended because of an error on our part, we tell you promptly and correct it at no charge. If the amendment is needed because information you gave us was inaccurate or incomplete, we will tell you the charge before we make it.

We conduct our business in accordance with Our Standards, which form part of these Terms.

4. Use of Artificial Intelligence

When you upload a commercial invoice, packing list, C88 or similar document, an AI model (Anthropic's Claude) reads it and proposes values for the declaration — for example parties, goods descriptions, commodity codes, quantities and values. AI is also used in the Portal's assistant and in tools that draft correspondence.

AI never submits a declaration. Every value it proposes appears in an editable field and must be checked by a person before filing — by you when you file, and by us when we file on your behalf. AI output is never treated as confirmed until a person has reviewed it.

5. Subscriptions, Fees and Payment

The Portal is offered on a subscription basis. Pricing and plan features are set out on the Subscription page within the Portal and may be updated with 30 days' notice. Fees for declarations we file on your behalf are agreed in writing before we act, and are subject to the same notice for any change. We do not charge interest on late payments.

Free Trial

New accounts receive a 30-day trial with Standard-tier access. No credit card required. Trial declarations count toward your monthly limit once you subscribe.

Billing Cycle

Subscriptions are billed monthly in advance. The billing date is the anniversary of your first paid payment.

Overages

If you exceed your plan's declaration limit in a given month, access to new declarations will be paused until the next billing cycle or until you upgrade.

Upgrades

Plan upgrades take effect immediately. The price difference is prorated for the remaining billing period.

Downgrades & Cancellation

Downgrades and cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing cycle. You will retain access until that date.

Refunds

We do not offer refunds for partial months. If you experience a service outage of more than 24 consecutive hours attributable to us, you may request a prorated credit.

6. Your Responsibilities

You must be authorised to act on behalf of the business or EORI number you register under the Portal.
You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of all data you enter, upload, or import into the Portal.
You must keep your login credentials confidential and notify us immediately if you suspect unauthorised access.
You must not use the Portal for any unlawful purpose, including facilitating customs fraud, money laundering, or sanctions evasion.
You must not attempt to reverse engineer, scrape, or interfere with the Portal's systems or APIs.
You are responsible for maintaining compliant records independently of the Portal. Do not rely solely on the Portal as your record-keeping system.

7. Intellectual Property

The Portal, including its software, design, algorithms, and documentation, is owned by HC Customs Ltd and protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to access and use the Portal for your internal business purposes during your subscription. You may not copy, redistribute, or create derivative works based on the Portal without our express written consent.

You retain ownership of the customs data and documents you upload to the Portal. By uploading content, you grant us a limited licence to process it solely to provide the services described in these Terms.

8. Limitation of Liability

The Portal is provided "as is" for compliance management purposes only. To the maximum extent permitted by law, HC Customs Ltd shall not be liable for any:

HMRC penalties, demands (including C18 post-clearance demands), or enforcement actions arising from your declarations
Errors in AI-proposed data that you accepted when filing a declaration yourself
Loss of data arising from system failures, cyberattacks, or force majeure events
Indirect, consequential, or punitive losses of any kind
Losses arising from your reliance on audit scores, drawback calculations, or compliance ratings generated by the Portal

Our total aggregate liability for any claim under these Terms shall not exceed the total fees paid by you in the 3 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

9. Availability and Maintenance

We aim for 99.5% monthly uptime, excluding scheduled maintenance. We will endeavour to give 24 hours' notice of planned downtime via email or in-portal notification. We do not guarantee uninterrupted access and shall not be liable for any interruption caused by factors outside our reasonable control, including third-party infrastructure failures (Vercel, Supabase, HMRC API outages).

10. Termination and Records

You may cancel your subscription at any time through the Subscription page or by emailing us. Access continues until the end of the paid period.

We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you breach these Terms, use the Portal fraudulently, or fail to pay outstanding invoices. On termination, your data is retained for 30 days during which you may export it, after which it will be deleted in accordance with our Privacy Policy — except for records we are required to keep.

Where we have acted as your customs representative, we keep your Client Authorisation and any complaint records for six years after the last declaration made under it, and declaration records for the period HMRC requires. If HMRC audits declarations we made for you after our appointment has ended, we will provide copies of the records we hold and reasonable help in answering HMRC's questions about them.

11. Complaints

Email contact@hc-customs.comwith “Complaint” in the subject line. We acknowledge complaints within 2 working days and give a full written response within 10 working days; if you are not satisfied, a director will review it. The full process is set out in Our Standards.

12. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified via email or an in-portal notification at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use of the Portal after that date constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not accept the changes, you may cancel your subscription before the effective date.

13. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. Nothing in these Terms affects any statutory rights you may have as a consumer under UK law.