Completing a customs declaration for an international parcel

Katerina Galkina · EN · 07/10/2026

Identify the route and shipment type

Goods and gifts sent from England, Scotland or Wales outside the UK generally need customs paperwork. Northern Ireland has separate arrangements, including for EU destinations. Post Office explains when customs forms are needed ↗. Correspondence containing no goods may be treated differently.

Choose the carrier and service before printing a form. CN22, CN23, CP72 and courier booking data are not universally interchangeable. Follow the form required for your service, value and destination.

Describe the actual contents

Use meaningful item categories, such as cotton T-shirt, book or ceramic mug, with quantities and values. “Things”, “personal” or “gift” does not describe the goods. Where required, add item weights, HS codes and country of origin, which is not necessarily the dispatch country.

For a sale, use the actual price and transaction evidence. For a gift or used item, provide an honest value under the relevant instructions. No sale does not mean zero customs value. Do not understate values to avoid a tax threshold or compensation charge.

Supply electronic data

Modern international post requires more than a paper label. Online bookings normally capture the information digitally. Post Office also offers a tool generating a reference or barcode for branch processing. Royal Mail warns that goods without mandatory electronic information can be delayed or returned ↗.

For the USA, use the service’s current special process rather than assuming an old label is sufficient for duty calculation. If a marketplace collected tax using IOSS or another mechanism, provide the required identifier through the correct field rather than displaying it publicly on the parcel on your own initiative.

Check everything before handing it over

Match the declaration, shipping label and invoice. State the genuine purpose: sale, gift, return or another category. Check contacts, signature and date where required, and attach documents according to carrier instructions.

Retain the declaration, value evidence, packaging photographs and receipt. For a return, include original order and import details where needed to claim relief. Customs paperwork does not replace checking prohibitions: confirming that the item may be sent and describing it correctly are separate steps.