Guides / Registering for CDS, step by step · Updated 19 October 2026

Registering for CDS: the steps before your first HMRC CDS declaration

You can't file an HMRC CDS declaration, or ask an agent to file one against your own EORI, until a short sequence of registration steps is complete. None of them is difficult on its own, but they have to happen in roughly the right order — a Government Gateway sign-in, an EORI number, and a subscription that links the two — and skipping or rushing one is the most common reason a first declaration stalls.

What has to be in place before CDS customs declarations will work at all

The Customs Declaration Service is HMRC's platform for both import and export declarations, and it's built around your EORI number and your Government Gateway sign-in, linked together by a subscription. If you plan to file yourself using commercial software, or if an agent will file on your behalf, this registration still has to exist on your own business's details — an agent cannot use their own Government Gateway credentials to create your CDS access. The steps below follow HMRC's own guidance on getting access to CDS.

Step 1: get your EORI number

You need an EORI number to use customs systems, including CDS, and to make customs declarations at all. According to GOV.UK, you usually need premises — a registered office, a central headquarters or a permanent business establishment — in the country you're importing to or exporting from in order to apply for one yourself; if you don't meet that, someone else has to handle customs on your behalf and obtain the EORI instead. Sort this out before you try to subscribe to CDS, since the subscription step asks for it directly.

Step 2: get your Government Gateway sign-in ready

CDS access sits behind a Government Gateway user ID and password for your business (or for yourself, if you're applying as an individual or sole trader). If you don't already have one, GOV.UK's guidance says you can create it as part of the registration process. The one firm rule: you cannot use an agent's Government Gateway user ID for this — it has to be the importer or exporter's own.

Step 3: subscribe to CDS

With an EORI and Government Gateway details ready, you subscribe through the "Subscribe now" service on tax.service.gov.uk. GOV.UK's guidance lists what you'll be asked for: your EORI number (starting GB or XI), your Unique Taxpayer Reference, the business address HMRC holds on its customs records, your National Insurance number if you're an individual or sole trader, and the date your business started. You can only register one EORI number per subscription, and if you've already subscribed for imports, you don't need to do it again for exports — one subscription covers both. HMRC says access typically comes through within 2 hours, or up to 5 working days if it needs to run further checks.

If you're using an EU-country EORI number rather than one starting GB or XI, you'll need a separate Government Gateway user ID for it — GOV.UK is explicit that an EU EORI can't be linked to the same sign-in as a GB-starting one.

Step 4: a duty deferment account, if you want to pay monthly rather than per consignment

This step is optional, but most regular importers set it up, because it replaces paying duty and import VAT consignment by consignment with a single monthly Direct Debit. GOV.UK's guidance on applying for a deferment account in Great Britain sets out what's needed: your EORI details, company number and VAT number if applicable, correspondence address, and an estimated amount of debt you expect to defer. You'll also need to decide whether to apply for a guarantee waiver (available if you're established in the UK for customs purposes) or provide a financial guarantee instead; HMRC aims to decide within 30 working days once it has everything it needs. Once approved, you get a deferment approval number, which is what you then use to set up the actual Direct Debit Instruction with your bank — GOV.UK is clear that this has to be submitted to activate the account even if you don't plan to use it straight away. Our guide to duty deferment accounts and the monthly Direct Debit covers this step in full.

Step 5: add anyone else who needs access

Once you're signed in, GOV.UK's guidance notes you can add team members through your HMRC business tax account and control what each one can see or do — useful if more than one person in the business needs to manage declarations, payments or authorities.

For a walkthrough with screenshots of each HMRC screen, Plutos's guide to registering for the Customs Declaration Service follows broadly the same sequence.

A realistic order to work through

Apply for or confirm your EORI number first — the subscription step needs it.
Have your Government Gateway sign-in ready, created under your own business, not an agent's.
Subscribe to CDS with your UTR, HMRC-held business address and (for individuals) National Insurance number to hand.
Decide separately whether you need a duty deferment account; if so, apply for it and then set up the Direct Debit once you have the approval number.
Add any colleagues who'll need their own access once your own sign-in is working.

Once this sequence is done, filing itself — through your own CDS software or a customs broker — is a separate question, and worth deciding only after your registration is actually in place.

Related guides

Want your hmrc cds declaration filed once registration is sorted?

Plutos is a UK–Poland customs information site run by the same team as Easy Clearance, the UK–EU customs clearance agency behind this guide's disclosure, and its step-by-step registration guide walks through the same HMRC screens in order.

See Plutos's CDS registration walkthrough

Sources

General information, not legal, tax or customs advice. Rules change; confirm current requirements on gov.uk or with a registered agent before you ship.