Import clearance

The import declaration settles classification, customs value, duty rate and import VAT (Article 158 et seq. UCC). The declarant needs an EORI number, the commercial invoice, the packing list and, where a preference is claimed, evidence of the origin of the goods. Import VAT on spirits applies at the standard rate of 19 percent.

What matters for alcohol duty is what follows. Duty does not arise where the products are placed under a duty suspension arrangement directly at the place of importation (section 22 (1) AlkStG). Only a registered consignor may provide that link, a trader holding its own authorisation for exactly this purpose (section 7 (1) AlkStG).

He opens a new e-AD with a new ARC, and that movement ends with the report of receipt in the tax warehouse. Only there do the goods lie duty suspended. For this to run without waiting time, invoice, packing list and declared quantities have to match the actual load before arrival. Differences are cheaper to settle before clearance than afterwards.

The costliest error is an import with no link to duty suspension. The alcohol duty then falls due at once on the whole consignment, even where the goods are sold off over months.

The second error is an assumption about roles. A tax warehouse may not collect goods at the port simply because it is a tax warehouse. Without the authorisation as a registered consignor, the leg from the place of importation to the warehouse is not covered.