With Customs’ permission, shipping companies can cater products exempt from taxes when the vessel is located in a port and when the catering is part of an event linked to the ship’s maritime practice. Such events are, for example, a shipping company’s representation events, which are linked to the marketing of the ship to interest groups. Products can also be catered exempt from taxes to passengers on the ship in so-called force majeure situations where the prerequisites for tax-exempt catering would otherwise not be fulfilled. The licence for tax-free catering must be applied in advance with a free-form application to Customs’ Authorisation Centre.
A summary on the tax-free catering events must be sent to alustoimitukset(at)tulli.fi before the sixteenth day of the following month.
Conditions of the license for tax-free catering (in Finnish)
In international traffic, vessels and aircraft require various goods and supplies for their operations, such as fuels and lubricants, provisions and various goods to be installed and used in maintenance and repairs. In customs legislation, deliveries of these goods are referred to as vessel and aircraft supplies.
Vessel and aircraft supplies also include goods which are delivered exempt from tax for sales purposes and for imports as gifts.
For vessel and aircraft supplies, it is required that the goods are ordered in the name of a shipping company or an airline. Goods meant for use by vessel personnel are treated as passenger imports and exports.
Read more: Ship supply procedure
Yes.
When goods are ordered from a company for delivery on board a vessel or aircraft, an electronic export declaration must be submitted to Customs concerning the delivery. The customs declaration must be submitted well in advance of the delivery onto the ship, so that Customs has the possibility to inspect the goods.
A company that regularly delivers goods to ships can apply for an authorisation from Customs to use a simplified declaration procedure, where instead of an export declaration, a summarising declaration is submitted to Customs for several different consignments.
Read more: Ship supply procedure
An electronic declaration concerning vessel or aircraft supplies is processed in the same way as a complete export declaration, with certain exceptions.
The export declaration concerning vessel or aircraft supplies is easier to draft than a normal export declaration, because only three summarising TARIC codes are used as tariff headings for ship supplies: 99302400 foodstuffs, 99302700 fuels and 99309900 other goods.
It is not necessary to provide export safety and security information or exit declarations.
Read more: Ship supply procedure
When delivering goods on board a vessel or aircraft in Finland, the supplier asks the vessel/aircraft representative to sign the export accompanying document (EAD), and then adds the signed document to its acconts as proof.
It is also possible for a supplier to obtain a decision on release with confirmation of exit for their accounts by presenting Customs with the accompanying document signed by the vessel/aircraft representative.
Read more: Confirmation of exit
- Sea traffic
- Sea traffic forms
- Customs regulation 17/2016 on procedures to be followed when delivering ship supplies (in Finnish)
- Port Traffic Declaration Service - Portnet
- Instruction from the Tax Administration: Harmonised excise duties on vessel and aircraft supplies (in Finnish)