Who is an exporter?

The exporter must be established in customs territory of the Union. A business that has its registered office or administrative head office outside the EU will be regarded as established in the customs territory of the EU if it has permanent staff and a fixed office in the EU for its business operations. Being registered for VAT or obtaining an EORI number do not alone constitute sufficient criteria for the trader to be regarded as established in the customs territory of the EU.

Furthermore, the exporter must have the power to decide on the export of the goods or be party to a contract that determines that the goods are to be taken out of the EU. For example, a transport operator can be party to such a contract. In such cases, it is possible to provide the transport operator as the exporter, and the name of the seller established outside the EU must then be provided using the additional information code FIXFY. 

The code is to be provided in the export declaration under Data on the item to be cleared. The number of the invoice that was obtained from the seller and that contains the details on which the export declaration is based is provided as the additional document.

An agreement party established in the EU is regarded as the exporter, even when the right of ownership of the goods has been transferred to a buyer established outside the EU in accordance with a term of sale or other agreement.

Re-exporters may still be established outside the EU. Likewise, private individuals carrying goods contained in their personal baggage need not be established in the EU.

You will need an EORI number for submitting the export declaration  

Exporters, re-exporters and their authorised representatives (e.g. forwarding agencies) must have an EORI number for submitting export declarations. Private individuals do not need an EORI number for submitting export declarations. 

The exporter is responsible for submitting the export declaration 

The exporter is responsible for submitting the export declaration to Customs. 

The export declaration must be lodged in the Member State where the goods are packaged or loaded for export, in accordance with the regulations concerning the office of export. In certain situations, however, an exporter from anther EU country may initiate the export procedure in Finland. In such case, an additional information code is used in the export declaration lodged on behalf of an exporter established in another EU country, to justify reasons for why the export declaration is lodged in Finland.

Special Mentions/Additional Information codes for export declarations by exporters in other EU Member States

  • FIXFD For goods not exceeding EUR 3 000 in value per consignment, the goods can be placed under the export procedure in the country of exit. The goods may be placed under the export procedure at the place of exit, provided that they are not subject to prohibitions or restrictions. Please note: If you are using this additional code, the export country cannot be Finland; instead, you must enter the country of departure as the country of export in the export declaration. Enter 72 as the code for the nature of the transaction. In ship supply declarations, you should enter 11 as the code for the nature of the transaction.
  • FIXFE The goods have been purchased in Finland and are placed under the export procedure in Finland on behalf of an exporter established in another Member State.
  • FIXFF Goods in a consignment stock in Finland. If you are using this additional code and the export country is other than Finland, enter 72 as the nature of transaction code.

Exports subject to restrictions

Export movements from another EU country cannot be placed under the export procedure in Finland, if an authorisation is required for export of the goods and the authorisation has been granted in the country of export. In these cases, the export declaration must be lodged with the customs authority of the country of export, unless it is exceptionally allowed in the authorisation to lodge declarations also in certain other countries.

Registered export customer 

Registration as export customer is mandatory for all exporters.

A registered export customer is a customer of Customs whose name and address have been saved in Customs’ customer register and who has been given an export customer code extension (e.g. T0001). The obligation to register is not influenced by any import or transit customer registrations of the business. Registration is free of charge.

Registration is recommended to all exporters. For exporters with at least five export consignments per year, registration is mandatory.

  • A group consisting of many businesses that operate with their own business IDs cannot register as a single entity. Each subsidiary of the group must register separately regardless of whether they lodge their own export declarations, or if, for example, the parent company lodges the export declarations of all its subsidiaries in a centralised fashion.
  • The business must register all its offices that dispatch export consignments. Each of these offices is issued its own export code extension with which Customs can identify the export consignment.

The business must declare the export customer code extension in its export declarations. The code extension must also be used in export declarations lodged by agents (forwarding agencies).The business must have an EORI number in order to register as export customer.

Application form and completion instructions

You will find the contact information at the bottom of the form.

Customs will confirm the registration by e-mail or by mail. The confirmation contains the export customer code extension that the customer shall use in connection with the business ID in export declarations.

In the registered export customer search, you can check if a business has registered as an export customer. 

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