The end of the £135 customs duty relief: what importers and platforms need to know about the road to March 2029

The £135 customs duty relief for low-value imports into the UK has a confirmed end date. In the Autumn Budget 2025, the government announced that the relief will be removed by March 2029 at the latest. The current relief remains in place through at least 31 December 2026, but the direction of travel is clear, and businesses that rely on it — or compete against imports that do — should be planning now rather than waiting for the deadline to approach.

The phased timeline reflects the scale of what is being built. The relief will not simply be switched off. It will be replaced by an entirely new customs framework designed specifically for low-value imports, known as the Low Value Import (LVI) system, which will handle declaration, valuation and duty collection for a category of trade currently running at around 1.6 million consignments a day into the UK. A formal consultation on the design of that system closed in March 2026, and the 2026 to 2028 period will be used to develop the technical architecture and test the new arrangements.

For businesses, the compliance transition is the part that matters most. The relief has allowed low-value consignments to enter the UK with minimal documentation and no duty liability. Once it is removed, those consignments will be subject to the UK Global Tariff, requiring accurate classification, valuation and — under the current proposals — a clear allocation of liability between sellers, online marketplaces and logistics providers. That allocation is still being developed, but the direction mirrors the VAT collection model introduced in 2021, under which platforms already carry obligations for marketplace sales.

The enforcement dimension is equally significant. The current system has created scope for undervaluation, misdescription and artificial consignment-splitting, and HMRC has indicated that the new LVI framework is designed in part to close those gaps. Enhanced data requirements, potentially including item-level information, are likely to form part of the final model.

March 2029 may feel distant, but the businesses best placed when the relief disappears will be those that used the intervening years to renegotiate supply contracts, clarify platform obligations, and build the customs processes the new regime will require.

In brief: The £135 customs duty relief will be removed by March 2029 at the latest, with the existing relief protected through at least the end of 2026. The new LVI framework will require significant compliance preparation across e-commerce supply chains, and businesses should begin reviewing contractual and operational exposure now.

For advice on customs liability, e-commerce import structures or HMRC disputes, contact Hammad Baig.