Upcoming changes to transit declarations

The changes to the EU customs legislation will bring about phased changes to customs declarations in 2019‒2025. 

Transit declarations, current situation

The transit declarations are submitted in Finland either online via the Transit Declaration Service or through message exchange.

Changes to transit declarations and the guarantee system

In Finland, the new transit declarations will be submitted to the new customs clearance system of Finnish Customs; in the EU timetables the deployment is planned for 2021–23. 

From then on, the declarations are to be submitted via the Customs Clearance Service or through message exchange.  

Examples of changes:

  • The commodity code (HS code) must be provided at the level of six digits.
  • The transit declaration may be pre-lodged (D declaration) 30 days prior to presentation of the goods to Customs. Deployment postponed, will not be deployed on November 2023.
    • A presentation notification must be submitted when presenting the goods to Customs.
    • When the declaration is pre-lodged, the goods can only be released for the procedure at a customs office. 
  • As a new detail, the customs office of exit must be provided for the transit when the consignment exits the EU, Norway and Switzerland (so-called security area) for another common transit country, such as the United Kingdom.
  • Customs will record any incidents during the transit in the transit declaration
  • In the future, the holder of the procedure must enter in the transit declaration the amount of guarantee to be reserved (the amount of duties and taxes).

The transit declarations relating to safety and security declarations are set to undergo changes in 2025.