SPE15835 - Removals for export: Goods Departed Message (GDM)

Note: This manual is under review following Brexit and is likely to be withdrawn. If there is anything within this manual you use regularly, please email hmrcmanualsteam@hmrc.gov.uk to let us know. Please check the other guidance available on GOV.UK from HMRC.

When the goods have been exported direct from the territory of the UK, CHIEF is notified by the port inventory system, or the loader/carrier at a non-inventory linked location, with a Goods Departed Message (GDM). If the Entry in Declarants Records (EIDR) or the Simplified Customs Declaration Process (SCDP) has been used a supplementary declaration must be submitted electronically within 14 days of the date that CHIEF was notified of the GDM (or the date of export whichever is the earlier). The GDM is official evidence of export only when goods leave the EU from the UK.

If the export declaration has been made electronically via CHIEF or using the WEB declaration option an alternative to the GDM may be held. This will be a copy of the CHIEF DEVD (option 2) screen. (This print can only be used as evidence of export when it shows a status of Entry Code 8 and an ICS Code 60 as these codes indicate that the goods have actually departed from the EK.)

In exceptional circumstances where a Goods Departed Message (GDM) has not been generated, commercial documentation may be used as primary evidence of export. However if a commercial document is used as evidence, the document must include a reference to the export declaration entry number. Commercial documents without this reference number must not be accepted, as they do not identify if the goods were correctly declared as exportation of customs warehousing goods.

Note: Northern Ireland (NI) customs authorisations will continue to fall within the provisions of the Union Customs Code (UCC), as retained by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and CEMA 1979.