Customs clearance of an undeclared item after delivery

A customs declaration must be lodged retrospectively for postal parcels and freight consignments, for example in the following situations:

  • You have receives a consignment that has not yet been cleared through customs.
  • Goods have left the customs warehouse by mistake without being cleared through customs.

First, find out if the representative (e.g. a forwarding agency) has already cleared the consignment. If not, declare the consignment yourself as soon as possible or use a representative.

Declare the consignment in the Customs Clearance Service or if you are a message exchange customer, declare the consignment by message.

If you are lodging a replacement customs declaration retrospectively, you’ll find more information on the page invalidation of a customs declaration.

Find out the previous document

First, find out the previous document, which must be stated in the customs declaration. The previous document can be

  • the tracking ID of the postal consignment
  • the tracking ID of the express freight consignment
  • the MRN of the T1 transit, summary declaration or entry summary declaration.

You can follow the parcels journey with the tracking ID.

If you have no way of finding out the previous document or if the transport company does not provide you with this information, in that case, you can lodge the declaration without information about a previous document. However, Customs does not recommend this.

Information concerning the previous document is required e.g. in situations where two customs declarations have been provided by mistake for the same goods. In these cases, the company can based on the previous document, easily show Customs that two declarations have been lodged for the same goods, and Customs can then cancel the unnecessary declaration.

When you make a customs declaration, the Customs Clearance Service retrieves the data of the previous document, by using the arrival ID, item tracking ID or tracking ID you have provided. Don’t change the data that the service has retrieved.

If you save the data yourself, enter as previous document type 1781, for the postal parcel. For the tracking ID of an express freight consignment, enter 1ZZZ as the previous document type.

The previous document for freight goods delivered by transport companies is usually an MRN reference (e.g. the format 21FI000000000000I0). Find out the status and type of the previous document with the MRN search provider.

If the service rejects the tracking ID, first check that you have entered it correctly. Additionally, ensure that the tracking ID has not been used previously in some other import declaration. An arrival ID from the postal company can only be used in one import declaration.

Read more about how the previous document is stated in the import declaration.

 

Provide also the following details

1. In the Customs Clearance Service, choose “Retrospective customs declaration” or in message exchange, choose “R – Retrospective customs declaration” as the additional declaration type. 

2. Also provide the exceptional tax date for the declaration. This is, for example, the date when

  • the consignment arrived undeclared to the company’s premises
  • missing goods were noticed at the warehouse or
  • the goods missing from the warehouse have been loaded.

3. If you know that the goods were under temporary storage or under the customs warehousing procedure before they were released for free circulation, enter the location of the goods under “Warehouse ID”. If the goods were not in a warehouse, you don’t have to provide the details of a proposed control location.

4. Attach the invoice to the customs declaration and any other possible attachments.

Customs clearance of goods that have disappeared from storage

If you are a temporary storage operator and you notice that goods have disappeared from your warehouse, inform immediately the customs office, which supervises the operations of your warehouse. If your supervising customs office gives you permission for customs clearance of the goods, you can submit a retrospective import declaration for the goods. Provide the additional information code “FICON” in the declaration, and as its description the customs office, which supervises the operations of your warehouse and which gave you the permission for customs clearance. Check the contact information for the customs office, which supervises the operations of the warehouse. 

Goods subject to authorisation in the consignment

If the consignment contains goods subject to authorisation, enter the restrictions and present the authorisations and certificates to Customs. You can use additional information code FIXXX to add information regarding the customs declaration. Use the code e.g. to explain why the customs clearance is done with a retrospective customs declaration.

Note the country of dispatch

  • If the parcel has arrived from outside the EU, you can submit a customs declaration for low value goods if the consignment has a value of no more than 150 euros. However, the consignment must not contain goods subject to restrictions or excise duty.
  • If the parcel has arrived from outside the EU, enter the country of dispatch. If the parcel arrives from the Canary Islands enter Spain as the country of dispatch, then you can make a tax border declaration.
  • If the parcel has arrived from Åland, enter Finland as the country of dispatch.