DUTY RECLAIM · C285

Reclaim what you overpaid.

BorderAudit re-audits every import entry in your declaration history — up to three years of it — finds the duty you overpaid, and prepares the evidence-linked C285 reclaim pack. 91% of claims are accepted by HMRC (His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) first time, and HMRC repays you directly.

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Free to start · flat pricing · never a success fee
WHERE THE MONEY HIDES

Overpaid duty doesn’t announce itself.

UK CUSTOMS · POST-CLEARANCE

Around 17% of UK customs declarations contain errors — and errors cut both ways. Some create liability. The rest are your money, sitting in entries that cleared without a flag, buried in the landed-cost line where nobody itemises them.

▲ Missed preference
Full duty paid on zero-tariff goods
Goods eligible for preferential rates under the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) or other trade agreements, cleared at full most-favoured-nation (MFN) rates instead. The single biggest source of recoverable duty.
▲ Valuation errors
Non-dutiable costs left in the value
Buying commissions, post-importation transport, UK installation costs and other excluded elements left inside the declared customs value — so duty was charged on value that was never dutiable.
▲ Wrong procedure
Relief available but never claimed
Entries to free circulation that qualified for a relief — returned goods, inward processing, end-use — under a different customs procedure code (CPC). The goods cleared, the duty was charged, and nothing flagged it.
▲ Closing window
The three-year window closes monthly
Overpaid duty is generally reclaimable for up to three years from the date of entry. Every month that passes, your oldest entries — and the duty locked inside them — expire from scope for good.
PAYING FULL DUTY ON PREFERENTIAL-ORIGIN GOODS? RUN AN ORIGIN & PREFERENCE AUDIT →
WATCH · 46 SECONDS

The three-year reclaim window

Overpaid duty is generally reclaimable for up to three years from the date of entry. Every month that passes, your oldest entries expire from scope — and the duty inside them stays with HMRC.

CHECK YOUR RECLAIM ELIGIBILITY IN TWO MINUTES →
HOW IT WORKS

From declaration data to repayment, in six stages.

Finding the error is the easy part. Proving it to HMRC is where claims stall. BorderAudit runs the whole reclaim as one governed workflow — every claim evidence-linked from the moment it’s identified.

CONNECT → REPAYMENT · ONE RECORD
  1. 01 · CONNECT
    Grant access once
    Authorise BorderAudit against your HMRC declaration data, or upload your MSS/CDS reports. No integration project, no change to how your goods move.
  2. 02 · ANALYSE
    Every line re-audited
    Every entry is cross-checked against tariff schedules, preference rules, valuation build-ups and CPC combinations — the same engine that analyses 4.4 million declaration lines a day.
  3. 03 · FINDINGS
    Ranked by cash value
    Recoverable entries surface on your dashboard ranked by value, each carrying the reason for the overpayment and the rate difference behind it.
  4. 04 · EVIDENCE
    A checklist per claim
    The platform flags exactly which documents each claim needs — invoices, origin proofs, transport documents — and tracks what's provided and what's still outstanding.
  5. 05 · REVIEW
    Specialist sign-off
    A customs specialist reviews every claim before anything is filed. Nothing goes to HMRC on a score alone.
  6. 06 · FILE & TRACK
    C285, filed and tracked
    The completed reclaim pack — claim schedule plus evidence — is submitted to HMRC and tracked to a decision. HMRC repays you directly.
ONE PLATFORM

Reclaim is what the audit finds.

BorderAudit is a post-clearance customs audit platform, not a recovery service. The same engine that re-audits your entries for compliance risk finds the overpayments — so every reclaim starts life as an audited, evidenced finding, not a hopeful spreadsheet. And when the analysis finds something HMRC would find too, the platform handles that side as well.

EXPLORE THE FULL COMPLIANCE PLATFORM →UNDER AN HMRC AUDIT? WE MANAGE IT END-TO-END →NOT UNDER AUDIT YET? CHECK YOUR READINESS →
BorderAudit duty reclaim — reclaim what you overpaid
THE NUMBERS

Recovered. Not projected.

UK CUSTOMS · FIGURES TO DATE

One mid-size fashion retailer recovered £144,000 on re-imported customer returns alone — a claim built entirely from declaration data and accepted by HMRC first time. For the full mechanics of a claim, from evidence to repayment, read the customs duty reclaim guide →

£4.7m
Duty identified & reclaimed to date
91%
Of submitted claims accepted by HMRC first time
17%
Of UK declarations contain errors
4.4m
Declaration lines analysed per day
FAQ

Duty reclaim, answered.

The C285 is the application HMRC (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs) uses to repay import duty — and in some cases import VAT — that was overpaid at the border. Each claim needs the entry details, the reason for the overpayment, and evidence to prove it. BorderAudit builds the complete claim schedule and the evidence pack from your declaration data, ready to file.
BOOK A CALL

See what three years of entries are worth.

A 30-minute call with a customs specialist. We’ll walk through how the re-audit runs on your declaration history, what a C285 reclaim pack contains, and what the three-year window means for your oldest entries.

⏱30 MIN · VIDEO CALL · UK HOURS
Confidential · no commitment · pick a slot that suits you.

The window is closing on your oldest entries.

Three years of declarations, every line re-audited, every overpayment built into an evidence-linked C285 claim — and HMRC repays you directly. Free to start. Flat pricing. Never a success fee.

Start a free auditborderaudit.io/product/duty-reclaim