UK CBAM
Get the updates

Resource

The document checklist

Law as at 13 September 2026.

The checklist names the provision that requires each record so that the file can be defended line by line. A business below the threshold keeps the first group and the twelve-month schedule and nothing more. Every record is kept in writing, which includes a scanned or electronic copy that can be produced on request, for six years beginning with the day after the end of the accounting period, or from creation where there is no period. A failure to keep a required record carries a penalty of £500 under paragraph 39 of Schedule 17.

Download the checklist as a Word document

For every consignment, registered or not

Regulation 5 of SI 2026/802

  • The accepted customs declaration: eight-digit code and description, date of acceptance, customs value, declarant.
  • The commercial invoice, supporting the value.
  • The packing list or weight certificate, supporting the net weight without packing (regulation 4).
  • Where an agent declared, the agent's instruction or authority showing on whose behalf it was made (section 146(2)).
  • Where applicable, the note that section 147(2) applies and the evidence behind it.

For the registration test

Schedule 17, paragraph 2; regulation 7 of SI 2026/802

  • The running twelve-month schedule of customs values, run on the first day of each month, leaving out section 147(2) goods and re-exported section 145 goods.
  • The trigger date and the working that produced it.
  • The registration, the information supplied under regulation 7 and the declaration that accompanied it.

For the return

Regulation 10(1) of SI 2026/802, as amended; regulation 11

  • For each line: the code, the weight, the amount of relief, the place of origin, the level of any default value, the verified intensity, and whether a UK-origin precursor within section 147(3) was used.
  • The origin evidence behind each line.
  • The sectoral domestic price for each quarter of import and the arithmetic for each consignment.

Where actual emissions data are used

Regulation 16 of SI 2026/995

  • The verification report under regulation 14, or the good-specific verification summary once defined.
  • The document tying the consignment to the installation: mill certificate, certificate of analysis or delivery note.
  • The supplier's statement of the intensity per commodity code drawn from the report.
  • Evidence that the monitoring period is one regulation 9 allows for the year of import.
  • For a complex good, the supplier's statement of precursors, their installations, and whether each was verified or defaulted.
  • Where the report does not show it, the accreditation certificate showing the type of good covered.

Where a default value is used

Regulation 4 of SI 2026/995; Schedule 17, paragraph 8(2)

  • The Treasury notice as it stood for the period, or a dated copy of the values used.
  • The working that applied the value to the weight.
  • Any correspondence showing why actual data was not used, since a later amendment is barred.

Where carbon price relief is claimed

Regulation 15 of SI 2026/809

  • The evidence that the scheme meets regulation 6 and of its elements under regulation 11: the published rules, scope and headline price.
  • Form CarbonVP1 for the installation and for each precursor installation in a different jurisdiction.
  • The five-step calculation of the effective carbon price.
  • The calculation of the relief with the cap, and the exchange rate and conversion.

Where the consignment is outside the charge

Section 147

  • UK origin: the origin determination and the documents behind it.
  • Returned goods: the export evidence and the relief claim.
  • Temporary admission with full relief: the declaration and the evidence of the relief.
  • UK-origin precursor: the origin evidence, the evidence of export and processing abroad, and the working for the exempt share.

Where a repayment is claimed

Schedule 17, paragraph 25; regulation 17 of SI 2026/802

  • The claim and the working showing the amount was not due.
  • Where customers are reimbursed: the name and address of each, the amount, the interest included and the date of each reimbursement.

The one-page cover for a new consignment

Declaration, invoice, packing list or weight certificate, agent's authority; origin evidence; installation identification; verification report or default value copy; precursor statement; form CarbonVP1 and scheme evidence; exemption evidence; the return line and its working; and the date on which the six years run out. A consignment whose page has every box filled before the return is filed will survive an inspection.