Providing the GRN of the comprehensive guarantee

Companies can apply for a comprehensive guarantee authorisation and a payment deferment authorisation. The authorisations make it possible to pay the import duties with a customs invoice sent later. If the company submits e.g. only Intrastat declarations, it doesn’t need to apply for a comprehensive guarantee authorisation. Read more about the comprehensive guarantee authorisation and applying for it on the page Guarantees.

The representative and the company can agree to use the representative’s comprehensive guarantee in the customs declaration, in which case the company doesn’t need to use its own comprehensive guarantee. In that case, only the GRN of the representative’s comprehensive guarantee is provided in the declaration.

Using the comprehensive guarantee authorisation in import requires that the GRN of the comprehensive guarantee is provided in the customs declaration for reserving a guarantee. The GRN of the comprehensive guarantee refers to the GRN indicated under “Guarantee” in the comprehensive guarantee authorisation. It is possible that the GRN is not indicated in older comprehensive guarantee authorisations. In that case, you should check the GRN in the My Details service. The number of the comprehensive guarantee authorisation itself is never provided in the customs declaration.

Is the GRN of the comprehensive guarantee always required in the customs declaration?

When a company has a comprehensive guarantee authorisation, Customs recommends that the GRN of the comprehensive guarantee should always be provided in the customs declaration. You can provide it in all standard and simplified customs declarations for import, with the exception of customs warehousing declarations.

The GRN of the comprehensive guarantee must always be provided in a standard declaration and in a simplified declaration if you submit

• a CCI declaration
• a declaration based on which Customs will reserve a guarantee to cover a customs debt or customs liability
• a customs declaration for inward processing, temporary admission or end-use.

If you don’t provide the GRN of the comprehensive guarantee in these cases, Customs will reject the declaration.

Provide the correct GRN of the comprehensive guarantee

If a customer has several comprehensive guarantee authorisations, each authorisation has its unique GRN of the comprehensive guarantee. Make sure that you provide the correct GRN in the declaration.

The customs procedures covered by the company’s comprehensive guarantee authorisation are indicated in the authorisation. If you provide the GRN of the comprehensive guarantee e.g. in a customs declaration for inward processing, but inward processing is not indicated in the authorisation, Customs will reject the declaration. Check that your comprehensive guarantee authorisation covers the customs procedures you use.

Each customs procedure indicated in the comprehensive guarantee authorisation is given a specific reference amount, which is the maximum amount of simultaneously outstanding debt or liability in the procedure. It’s not possible to reserve a guarantee in the declaration if the reference amount doesn’t cover the liabilities for the goods to be placed under the procedure or if the guarantee reference amount has been exceeded or it will be exceeded due to the amount to be reserved. Read more about the reference amounts of the comprehensive guarantee.

The GRN of the guarantee has the format ”25FI000000K000000” if the comprehensive guarantee authorisation was granted in Finland in 2025. When the type of representation used by the company is “direct representative on guarantor’s responsibility” and the comprehensive guarantee authorisation was granted in Finland in 2025, the GRN of the guarantee has the format “25FI000000T00000”. In older comprehensive guarantee authorisations, the GRN of the guarantee has the format “03FI000000000000K” or “03FI000000000000T”.

If the authorisation is a comprehensive guarantee authorisation for import granted in Finland in 2025 and it is valid in more than one EU Member State, the GRN of the guarantee has the format ”25FI000000E00000”.

Is a debt guarantee or a liability guarantee reserved for the goods?

A debt guarantee is reserved for the goods when they are released for free circulation. Using a debt guarantee also always requires a payment deferment authorisation indicating the procedure requested in the customs declaration. A debt guarantee is reserved to cover the amount of customs debt. The procedures 40, 45 and 61 are examples of procedures for release for free circulation. Read more about the debt guarantee on the page Comprehensive guarantee.

A liability guarantee is reserved for the goods when they are placed under a special procedure, such as the inward processing procedure. Using a liability guarantee doesn’t require a payment deferment authorisation. A liability guarantee is reserved e.g. for the special procedures 44, 51 and 53. Read more about the liability guarantee on the page Comprehensive guarantee.

Providing the GRN of the comprehensive guarantee in the customs declaration

Provide the GRN of the comprehensive in the customs declaration as follows:

• Provide your GRN in the customs declaration under “Guarantee reference number (GRN)”.
• If you submit the declaration via message exchange, you should provide, in addition to the GRN of the guarantee, the guarantee type with the code “1 – Comprehensive guarantee”.
  • The guarantee type isn’t provided in the Customs Clearance Service.

If you use the CCL authorisation to submit the declaration, read the guidance on the page “Centralised clearance for import (CCI)”.