International Office and Business Removals

Countries set their own rules for what a family can bring in when moving home, and those reliefs are written for private individuals. GOV.UK’s transfer of residence guidance (opens in a new window) for the UK, for example, says the relief is only available to “living persons” and their personal property, not to companies.

Don’t assume a company’s equipment can travel on a member of staff’s household inventory. Ask the destination’s customs authority, or the customs agent, how business goods are treated there. Mark anything leased, financed or borrowed as well, because someone other than the company may own it, and your lease or finance terms may say whether it can leave the country.

Descriptions matter more than people expect. HMRC’s VAT notice on exports (Notice 703) says the evidence of export needs “an accurate and non-contradictory description of the exported goods and quantities”, and that vague or contradictory descriptions of goods, quantities or values are not acceptable. A list that gives the make, model, quantity and value of every significant item gives the customs agent something to work from. The international moving volume calculator counts what you are moving so that the removal company can quote, which is a different list from the one customs needs.

Leaving the UK with business goods involves three things: an EORI number, an export declaration, and a decision on how VAT applies. GOV.UK’s step-by-step guide to exporting goods (opens in a new window) says you need an EORI number starting with GB to export goods from England, Wales or Scotland, and business.gov.uk (opens in a new window) says you need one even if you use an agent or freight forwarder.

Moves to or from Northern Ireland may need a number starting with XI. An EORI (Economic Operators Registration and Identification) number is what customs uses to recognise a business on a declaration. The same guide lists the other early jobs: check the destination’s rules, find a commodity code (the number that classifies each type of goods) and prepare an invoice, using the market value if you are not selling the goods. GOV.UK’s EORI page (opens in a new window) explains who may need a number.

Equipment that goes abroad for a project, a trade show or a trial office and then returns follows a different path from a permanent move. On business.gov.uk (opens in a new window), an ATA carnet lets you temporarily export commercial samples, exhibition goods and professional equipment, and the page compares it to a passport for goods.

Which goods and uses are accepted varies between the countries that take part, and the issuing association in the UK can tell you whether a carnet works where you are going. The GOV.UK carnet handbook (opens in a new window) adds that a carnet is only valid for temporary exports, and customs may note a deadline for re-export on the counterfoil.

The same business.gov.uk page names two alternatives. A Duplicate List can stand in for export and import declarations when leaving and re-entering Great Britain, though you will usually still declare the goods and pay duty in other countries you enter. Returned Goods Relief gives relief from customs duty when you bring the goods back into the UK, but the exporter and importer must be the same person and the goods must come back unaltered, apart from maintenance.

Plans change. If goods listed on a carnet end up staying, the handbook says to contact customs in the country where they will remain, and to complete a retrospective full export declaration in the UK, and that customs charges may become due. GOV.UK’s guide to using your ATA carnet (opens in a new window) says not to wait until the carnet is due to expire. A temporary arrangement that turns permanent is far easier to deal with the day you know than months later.

Everything above is the UK end. The country you are moving to sets its own duty, import tax, licences and registration for business goods. GOV.UK’s export guide tells exporters to check the destination’s duties, rules and restrictions, and to confirm that the recipient can import the goods, since the recipient may need its own import declaration or licences.

For a relocating business the recipient is usually your own new branch or a new company abroad, and the difference matters twice on this page: Notice 703’s own-goods rule is written for a branch, and the ICO treats a separate company, even one in your group, as a separate legal entity for data transfers. Tell your accountant and your data protection lead which you have.

The recipient’s registration, and any import number the country requires, may have to be in place before the goods arrive. Ask the destination’s customs authority or a customs agent there what it needs, and ask the partner removal company who will be named on the import declaration and who will clear the goods. The office and business removals to Germany page shows what those answers look like for one country.

When people relocate with the business, each household move is a second job beside the office move, with its own list, its own quotation and often a different payer. Agree early who receives each quotation, which company entity pays and what any relocation policy allows. If there is a relocation policy, share the parts that matter to the removal company, such as any volume or budget limit and whether packing, storage or unpacking is included, so the quotation matches what has been approved. Say which purchase order or cost centre reference each quotation needs.

Visas, work permits, employment contracts and tax are matters for the destination’s authorities and your advisers. A removal company moves belongings and does not advise on them.

Plan from the day people must be working again, and count backwards: installing and testing, delivery, customs clearance, transit, collection. Ask the partner for the lead times in writing, and let the steps that depend on a carrier or on customs set the plan.

Evenings and weekends are the usual windows for an office, but both buildings have their own rules for loading bays, lift bookings and certificates of insurance, and some countries limit when heavy lorries can travel at weekends. Ask both buildings, and ask the partner about the route, before dates are fixed. The moving planner can lay the dates out in order.

To keep the business trading, some firms move in stages, so that part of the team works from home while their desks are in transit. Others keep a skeleton team on the old premises until the new network passes its tests. If the new premises are not ready when the goods arrive, ask the partner about storing goods between premises rather than delivering into an empty building.