ORIGIN & PREFERENCE AUDIT

53% of preference claims we analysed had gaps.

That's from 2.3 million UK textile declarations. Preferential origin — reduced or zero duty under a free trade agreement (FTA) — is where the biggest duty savings hide, and where the biggest evidence risk sits. BorderAudit audits both sides of it, on every entry.

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WHO IT'S FOR

Whether you claim preference or pay full duty — the audit pays both ways.

CLAIMING PREFERENCE
Importers already claiming reduced rates
You claim preferential duty under the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) or other FTAs. The question is whether every claim would survive an HMRC evidence request — statements on origin, REX numbers, supplier declarations and all.
PAYING FULL DUTY
Importers declaring at the full rate
You import from FTA partner countries but declare at full duty rates. Some of that duty was never owed — and up to three years of it may still be recoverable.
OWNING THE RISK
Finance & customs teams without visibility
You've inherited the customs function and can't see preference utilisation across the book. One audit shows both sides at once: the savings being missed and the claims that wouldn't hold.
THE TWO FAILURE MODES

Preference goes wrong in two directions.

Miss it, and you pay duty you never owed. Claim it without evidence, and you carry an exposure HMRC can test years later. Most import books do both at once.

▲ Unsupported claims — HMRC risk
▲ EVIDENCE
Claims without proof of origin
A preferential rate was claimed, but there's no statement on origin — or the wrong kind — behind it. HMRC can deny the preference and assess the full duty, with interest, across every affected entry.
▲ REX
Invalid or lapsed REX numbers
Statements on origin under EU-linked agreements depend on the supplier's Registered Exporter (REX) number being valid. Revoked or mistyped numbers quietly invalidate every claim that relies on them.
▲ SUPPLIERS
Supplier declarations that don't hold
Long-term supplier declarations expire, cover the wrong products, or contradict the commodity codes declared. Each one is a preference claim that fails the moment it's tested.
Missed preference — reclaim opportunity
01
REASON 01
Eligible goods, full duty paid
Goods qualified for a reduced or zero rate under a trade agreement but were declared at the full rate — often because the proof of origin wasn't to hand at the moment of entry.
02
REASON 02
Preference is claimable after import
Missed preference isn't gone. With valid proof of origin, the claim can be made retrospectively and the overpaid duty reclaimed from HMRC.
03
REASON 03
Three years of entries in scope
The reclaim window runs three years from each entry — and it rolls. Every unaudited month is duty quietly expiring off the books.
HOW THE AUDIT WORKS

Eligibility and evidence, checked on every entry.

01

Every entry tested for eligibility

Each declaration is re-checked against its commodity code, country of origin and the agreement's product-specific origin rules — surfacing preference that was available and either claimed or missed. Not a sample. The whole book.

ALL ENTRIES
PER CLAIM

Evidence validated, not assumed

For every claim, the platform builds the evidence checklist that preference code requires — then validates it. Registered Exporter numbers are checked against the EU registry via REX validation; statements on origin and supplier declarations are read and matched to their entries by document intelligence.

02
03

Two lists out

A reclaim file for missed preference — prepared, filed with HMRC and tracked through to repayment — and a gap list for unsupported claims, showing exactly which document is missing on each entry.

FINDINGS
CONTINUOUS

Monitored forward

New entries are audited as they land, so missed preference is caught inside the reclaim window and evidence gaps are closed before HMRC asks — not discovered during an inquiry.

04
UNDER THE HOOD

Built into the customs audit platform.

ELIGIBILITY
Preference re-tested on every entry
Commodity code, origin and agreement rules re-checked across the whole declaration book — missed preference and mis-claimed rates surface together, ranked by duty value.
EVIDENCE
Dynamic evidence checklists
The platform knows which documents each preference code requires and builds a per-declaration checklist with mandatory and optional items — so you know exactly what HMRC would expect to see.
REX VALIDATION
REX numbers verified at source
Registered Exporter numbers are validated against the EU registry, catching revoked, lapsed or invalid registrations before they sink the claims that depend on them.
DOCUMENTS
Supplier declarations, read
Statements on origin and long-term supplier declarations are extracted, checked and matched to the entries they are meant to cover — expiry dates and product scope included.
RECOVERY
Findings flow into reclaims
Entries with missed preference are flagged straight into the reclaim workflow — prepared, filed and tracked to repayment. Nothing is double-keyed.
RISK
Duty-at-risk, quantified
Preference evidence is one of six scored risk dimensions on your audit-readiness radar, with duty-at-risk quantified over the same multi-year window HMRC can assess.
Go deeper: REX validation → · Document intelligence →
THE EVIDENCE

Preference utilisation, measured — not guessed.

UK customs · figures to date
2.3M
Textile declarations analysed
53%
Of preference claims had gaps
£4.7M
Duty identified & reclaimed to date
91%
HMRC acceptance on claims filed
FREE AUDIT

See what your preference book is hiding.

Tell us who you are and we'll confirm your import activity and model what an origin and preference audit could surface — missed preference to reclaim, unsupported claims to fix. No data upload required to start.

●No commitment
●Results in minutes
●UK & EU customs

Prefer to talk it through first? Book a call →

STEP 1/3

Check your import status

Enter your VAT number or business name — we'll check HMRC, Companies House and UK trade data for your import activity.

FAQ

Origin & preference, answered.

Preferential origin is the status that lets goods enter the UK at a reduced or zero duty rate under a free trade agreement (FTA), such as the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). It is different from non-preferential ('made in') origin: to qualify, goods must meet the agreement's product-specific origin rules, and the claim must be supported by valid proof of origin — typically a statement on origin from the exporter or the importer's-knowledge basis with supporting evidence.

Take back control of your preference claims.

Run a free audit on your entries — the duty you never owed, the claims that need evidence, and the status behind every one. Flat pricing, never a cut of what you recover.

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