Live webinar / 30 minutes

Duty on the shelf: the tax you paid on stock nobody has bought yet

When you pay duty on stock, that money is gone before the stock has sold.

Wednesday 3 February 2027 12:00 to 12:30 GMT Online Free to attend

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Wednesday 3 February, 12:00 to 12:30 GMT. Can't make it live? Register anyway and we'll send you the recording.

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The problem

Duty is paid on arrival. Customers pay you months later.

You have paid a tax on goods sitting in a warehouse, and you do not get it back until customers start buying.

Duty suspension lets you delay that payment until the goods actually leave the warehouse. Most retailers have heard of it but far fewer have worked out what it would be worth to them, because it gets treated as a compliance question of ‘are we allowed to do this?’, rather than a money question.

A seasonal order, four months on the shelf · the same stock, two ways to pay

Goods landMonth 1Month 2Month 3Month 4Selling starts

Duty paid at import How most retailers do it

Paid day one

Cash gone while the stock sits

Sales begin

Duty suspended Stock held under bond

Nothing due while it sits

Paid as items leave

Cash outNothing due

On a big seasonal order sitting in a warehouse for four months, the difference is not small.

It is the same kind of decision as negotiating payment terms with a supplier, and it gets a fraction of the attention.

The session

Numbers first, rules second.

This session starts with the numbers and gets to the rules second. What delaying duty is actually worth, what you need to be able to show about your stock, and why “our warehouse system can't do that” usually turns out not to be the problem.

What it is worth Delaying duty, in cash, on a realistic order

What you must show What HMRC expects about your stock

What your systems need Why the warehouse system is rarely the blocker

What we'll cover

In 30 minutes, you'll learn

What delaying duty is worth in cash, worked through on a realistic seasonal order

Which goods qualify for duty suspension, and which quietly do not

What HMRC expects you to be able to show about bonded stock, and where retailers get caught out

Why tracking duty at item level does not mean replacing your warehouse system

You'll leave with

A realistic six month plan for getting set up

What has to be in place, and in what order, before the first consignment goes in under bond.

Who it's for

For finance directors, heads of logistics and inventory managers in UK retail who buy stock months ahead of selling it.

Finance Directors Heads of Logistics Inventory Managers UK retail

Hosted by

Descartes' Customs and Bonded Warehousing software helps UK businesses suspend duty and import VAT on goods held under bond, keep the stock records HMRC expects, and connect to the systems they already run.

Wednesday 3 February 2027, 12:00 GMT. Thirty minutes, free to attend, and the six month plan to take away.