UK marketplace makes IEN mandatory — tax-inclusive clearance shipments start to be affected

The UK marketplace requires sellers to fill in the Import Entry Number (IEN) for inbound shipments. It looks like a technical requirement, but its impact on a seller's clearance method is quite direct.

What is the IEN

The IEN is a number generated by UK customs after an import declaration is completed, identifying that import declaration. It is bound to the entity that performed the import clearance — whoever declares has this number in their declaration record.

Why it affects tax-inclusive clients

For tax-inclusive clearance shipments, the import declaration is made in the customs broker's name, so the seller has no import record under their own name, and naturally cannot obtain the IEN corresponding to their own goods.

After the policy requires filling it in, tax-inclusive clients face a dilemma: leave it blank and the shipment may not be created or received normally; fill it in and you cannot produce a genuinely matching code.

Changes we observed this year

• Some sellers previously using tax-inclusive clearance began switching to self-tax deferment clearance to obtain import records under their own name;
• During the switch, because they long had only output data, input data suddenly appeared concentrated, which instead drew attention to data fluctuation;
• The industry saw the speculative practice of "applying one IEN to multiple shipments" — extremely risky and not recommended.