In 2019, Finnish Customs collected a total of around 274 million euros in taxes, duties and charges. Of this amount, about 150 million euros was remitted to the EU. The arrears of the taxes and charges collected by Customs amounted to 1.3 million euros and the tax arrears rate was 0.47 %.
The largest tax revenues in 2019 and 2018
| |
2019 |
2018 |
| Customs duties |
€ 188 million |
€ 173 million |
| Fairway dues |
€ 52 million |
€ 49 million |
| Import VAT |
€ 31 million |
€ 260 million |
| Service charges etc |
€ 3 million |
€ 3 million |
Customs clearance as a trade policy component
Customs clearance helps to implement EU trade policy. The collected customs duties are remitted to the EU; that is, they are part of the EU’s appropriations (EU’s own resources). Customs duties can also be used to control and restrict the import of goods from outside the EU and to safeguard intra-EU trade. For example, an anti-dumping duty can be imposed if goods have been brought into the EU at a dumped price that is lower than the cost of production or the domestic prices in the exporting country.
State of Finland retained 38 million euros in collection costs
The total amount of customs duties collected was 188 million euros in 2019. Finnish Customs remitted 150 million euros in customs duties to the EU and 38 million euros in collection costs to the Finnish state. The state retains an annual collection fee of 20 % of the customs duties.
The amount of fairway dues collected by Customs in 2019 rose to 52 million euros, which is three million euros more than in the previous year. At the start of 2018, the main part of import VAT collection was transferred to the Finnish Tax Administration. Because of the transfer, the amount of VAT collected by Customs reduced by 229 million euros in comparison with the previous year.
In 2019, Finnish Customs collected around 31 million euros in VAT from both registered and non-registered parties liable to pay VAT in cases where they had breached the provisions governing the customs procedure. For customs clearance, a customs value is established for the import goods and based on this value, businesses declare the VAT to the Tax Administration. In addition, based on the customs value, Customs and the Tax Administration oversee that the proper amount of VAT is collected.
The amount of service charges collected was the same as in 2018; that is, three million euros. In 2019, tax arrears amounted to 1.3 million euros and their relative share of the collected taxes was 0.47 %. The year before, the corresponding figures were two million euros and 0.41 %.
