Presentation of goods to Customs

The transport company or other transporter of the goods must submit a presentation notification for goods transported across the tax border, that is, between Åland and mainland Finland.

The transport company or other transporter of the goods must have an EORI number even if they use a representative to submit the notification.

A presentation notification is not required

  • If the transport company has received information that a national tax border declaration has been lodged for the goods consignment. Such information can be the MRN of the declaration.
  • If a customs declaration has been submitted for the consignment at the point when the goods are imported across the tax border.

A presentation notification must be submitted

  • If the importer is going to submit a tax border declaration in two stages, or
  • If a customer with a tax border number is going to submit a recapitulative statement.  
  • If the company transports its own goods across the tax border and no national tax border declaration has been submitted when the goods arrive across the tax border.

Approved places of presentation

Approved places of presentation are 

  • ports
  • airports
  • postal terminals
  • ports and quays for inter-island ferries.

Read more in Regulation 10/2022 of Finnish Customs (available in Finnish and Swedish)

Submit the presentation notification as follows

Submit the declaration via the Customs Clearance Service or via message exchange. If you are a message declarant, use the message FI332, presentation notification.

Submit the notification, at the latest, when goods arrive across the tax border at an approved place of presentation. The place of presentation can be either the place of dispatch or the place of destination of the transport.

The presentation notification must contain the following details

  • the name and EORI number of the submitter of the notification, i.e. the transport company
  • mode of transport
  • identification of means of transport
  • type of means of transport
  • previous document
    • select the previous document type “ZZZ” and enter the transport document number in the next field
  • location of goods
    • select type A and provide the address details of the place of presentation as the description
  • customs office of presentation
    • select the customs office code for Mariehamn Customs
  • additional information codes
    • select the additional information code “FIEVR – Presentation of goods at tax border”
    • select the additional information code “FISGN” and provide the tax border number as the description, if the goods were sold to a private individual and the seller has a tax border number

You need not provide warehouse details.

Transport of goods after the presentation notification

Transport companies can transport the goods from the place of presentation to the consignee when 30 minutes have passed since the presentation notification was submitted, unless Customs has sent a notification of a customs control via the Customs Clearance Service or using the message “Customs’ notification” to message declarants.

Postal consignments

In the case of postal consignments, the postal operator can hand over the possession of the goods to a VAT-registered consignee, and no separate presentation notification is required. The postal operator makes an entry of the handover in the records it keeps for Customs.

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