Research on customer understanding of customs duties rules (2017)
Research exploring the public’s understanding of the rules regarding customs duties and perceptions of how these rules may have changed when the UK left the EU.
Documents
Details
This report was commissioned under the Conservative administration (2010 to 2024), and conducted in 2017.
HMRC Research Report 811
The first strand of research conducted was the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey. Data was collected from a total of 1,711 respondents as part of the July and August 2017 waves of the survey. Ipsos also conducted 30 face-to-face in-depth interviews with members of the public, all of whom had brought goods back from overseas and or sent or received goods to or from overseas in the past 6 months.
Specifically, the research sought to understand:
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what types of items are brought back to the UK, individuals’ decision-making process when bringing goods into the country, and how they decide when to declare items
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public awareness and understanding of the duties and allowances that apply, and their obligations regarding these, when bringing goods back into the UK from overseas, or when sending and receiving them via post or courier
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the extent to which the public know where to find information on customs allowances and postage rules
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expectations of what impact leaving the EU may have on customs allowances and postage rules, and what impact this would have on behaviour