Customs Duty Audit

Hi , I just got news today that my small business was selected for a Revenue audit. We import clothing. The 'Scope of the Audit' is marked as Customs Duty.

My question is as the scope of the audit is 'customs duty' does that mean the audit will only focus on customs duty documents or will they be looking for all other information for the time specified VAT, PAYE, PRSI etc.

Our shipping agent sees it as no big deal and stated it is standard for importers to have a customs duty audit. I was not aware of this. Is this correct ?

They have requested all original documents for 12 shipments which is no problem getting - i'm just wondering is it worth having all other documentation ready. If anyone out there has experience with customs audits i would welcome your thoughts. Also may help someone in the future.

..........also forgot to mention that shipping agent said this is pretty standard for customs to audit customs account.... Does a customs audit include a wider audit ?
tks

Have a read of this:

http://www.revenue.ie/en/customs/leaflets/pn1874.html

thanks for that .. wondering if anyone else experienced such an audit and if they check customs only + import documents or if they check all other docs in business.

From what i have heard the audit is to check customs duties only rather than go through all other parts of the business. can anyone clarify their most common practice

if only custom's doc and import docs i would have just those docs ready,, if all other documents i would need more hours to prepare.

Hi there,

I got exactly the same letter in the post last week for 9 shipments.

These are all in order etc, declared amounts with invoices and bank transfers to prove they are 100% correct.

My worry is what else are they looking for?

Can they request to see vat returns, p30 etc not that their is anything wrong but it takes a lot of time and effort to prepare for these bloody things!

I had an aspect enquiry last year and they said everything was fine but I should keep a record of my shipments which I have done so may be to do with that!

Any feed back or experience of this would be great.

Our last audit focused only on customs issues. They were very reasonable to deal with.
Any info you don't have to hand can be forwarded on afterwards anyway.

i called them today to enquire what they were looking for exactly and the guy was sound! told what he needed and offered assistance on how we can improve our process etc etc. Seems like they are ok to deal with