What are Customs Duties?
Customs duty is an EU-wide tax levied on the importation of goods into the EU. The EU operates a common customs tariff that, in effect, means the same amount of customs duty will be levied on imports irrespective of where in the EU the importation is made. The “Customs Union” is the foundation of the EU, i.e. no customs duty is applied on the movement of goods between EU member states. In addition to the tariff, a common set of rules covering trade policy, external trade relations, health and environment controls and agricultural policy operates to enable the single market to work effectively.
Various facilities are available that can help importers’ cash flow and reduce or mitigate the cost of customs duties. Customs warehousing allows the payment of import charges to be delayed until removal into the EU or not paid at all if the goods are exported outside of the EU. Inward processing relief allows relief to be claimed when goods are imported for manufacture and re-export. Conversely, outward processing relief allows relief to be claimed where EU goods have been exported for manufacture and returned to the EU. There are many other opportunities to ensure that the duty cost is mitigated, but much is dependent on the exact import operations undertaken or those that are envisaged.
Our Customs team
Our experienced specialists in the International Trade Group assist businesses in minimizing their customs duty/excise duty costs and check with compliance obligations efficiently and effectively.
Customs Planning and Compliance
Customs authorities everywhere are paying far more attention to compliance. There are severe penalties for not being compliant, even for exports (where no taxes need to be paid). We can help you to better address your compliance obligations, even where you use brokers, forwarding agents, etc. to assist in this process.
What are Excise Duties?
Unlike customs duty, excise duty is a local tax levied on certain products at specific national rates. Products that are liable for excise duties include alcohol, tobacco and mineral oils (such as petrol). VAT is normally charged on the excise-duty-inclusive price and excise duty is due when the appropriate goods are released for consumption in the UK.
Excise Duty Assistance
Our Excise Duty Liability Profiler is a methodology developed to help companies address their excise duty issues. Trading in excise duty goods invariably means high taxes and high liabilities.
e-Customs
Our team has developed several tools that allow you to automate your customs procedures. This can be interfaced with your ERP system to fully automotive reporting imports and exports. This reduces the administrative costs to such an extent that the initial outlay is recovered in 1 to 2 years.
Why do it?
- It allows you to deal with compliance effectively, minimizes the duty bills and can also reduce lead times to a minimum.
- Customs authorities are creating a paperless environment which obliges businesses to automate customs compliance.
- It saves money (outsourcing your customs compliance is normally more expensive)!
What tools do we offer?
- E-Dec Solutions: import/export compliance tool interfaced directly with the authorities in 14 EU Member States
- ConsulTrade: a tool to monitor complex customs procedures
- SAP Global Trade Services: our team is working closely with SAP to implement its customs compliance module.
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