The guidance has been translated into simplified Mandarin to support sellers exporting goods from China to comply with UK import and VAT regulations following calls from Chinese exporters to provide guidance targeted specifically at them.

Some of the awareness issues were related to language and the lack of translated documents in Chinese, HMRC said. ‘There was a common theme that any future information aimed at educating Chinese sellers needs to be easily understood and accessible. There was a notable appetite among sellers for HMRC to produce and share seller information in the Chinese language,’ the research found.

In 2022, the UK imported a total of £83.3bn in goods and services from China and Hong Kong, from £63.6bn in 2021 - online shopping accounted for 25.6% of all UK retail sales.