Placing goods under the customs warehousing procedure

Goods are placed under the customs warehousing procedure by lodging a customs warehousing declaration. Goods can be placed under the procedure e.g. when they arrive in Finland or when they are transferred from temporary storage to a customs warehouse, or from one customs warehouse to another. Moreover, transit or inward processing can be discharged with customs warehousing.

When the goods are received at a customs warehouse, no other unloading report will be submitted for the goods than the transit unloading report, if any. Any discrepancies observed during unloading between the goods and the declaration lodged for them, the customs warehousing declaration will be amended or a new customs declaration will be lodged for the goods.

When goods are placed under the customs warehousing procedure, they can be moved from the location where they were placed under the procedure to the premises of the holder of the authorisation, or between locations indicated in the customs warehousing authorisation.

  • In a private customs warehouse, the holder of the authorisation is always also the holder of the procedure. The authorisation holder’s responsibility for the goods begins before they are moved; i.e. at the moment when the goods are placed under the customs warehousing procedure.
  • In a public warehouse, there can be several holders of the procedure who can be operators other than the holder of the authorisation. The holder of the procedure and holder of the authorisation are jointly responsible for the movement of the goods.

Points to consider

Goods are placed under the customs warehousing procedure and the transit is discharged against the customs warehousing declaration. For goods arriving under a transit procedure, an unloading permission must always be requested from Customs.

  • If the receiving customs warehouse is indicated in the customs warehouse keeper’s authorisation to act as authorised consignee for transit, the unloading permission shall be requested with a message. Request the unloading permission electronically with an arrival notification message after the goods have arrived at the warehouse.
  • If the goods are brought to the warehouse under T transit and your company does not have the authorised consignee authorisation for transit, request the unloading permission either from a customs office with customer service or by email from spake.passitus(at)tulli.fi. If you request the unloading permission by email, provide the MRN issued to the pre-lodged customs warehousing declaration. You will also need the MRN at Customs’ customer service point.
  • Request the unloading permission for TIR Carnet transit already at the office of transit or at the office of entry, if there is no customs office with customer service at the destination. Note that, in such case, the customs warehousing declaration must be pre-lodged for the goods, and the goods will be placed under the customs warehousing procedure already at the point of entry. When the goods have arrived at the warehouse, no separate unloading permission will be requested for them.

Example 1. When the receiving warehouse does not have the authorised consignee authorisation for transit:

Warehouse Ltd. has a private customs warehouse in Rauma. Goods are arriving for Warehouse Ltd. under a transit procedure at a port in Helsinki. The holder of the procedure, Warehouse Ltd, pre-lodges a customs declaration (IMD/7100) for the arriving goods in Customs’ e-service.

The goods arrive in Helsinki. The customer (driver) requests an unloading permission for the transit either from the customs office of departure or by email from spake.passitus(at)tulli.fi. The customer provides the MRN of the pre-lodged customs warehousing declaration in the email message. The Electronic Service Centre discharges the transit and processes the customs warehousing declaration. The holder of the procedure receives a notification of release from Customs concerning the discharge of the transit as well as a release decision showing that the goods have been placed under the customs warehousing procedure.

When the goods are loaded into the customs warehouse in Rauma, Warehouse Ltd. checks that the goods match the details in the customs declaration. Any discrepancies observed during unloading, the customs warehousing declaration will be amended or a new customs declaration will be lodged for the goods.

Example 2. When the receiving warehouse has the authorised consignee authorisation:

Warehouse Ltd. has a private customs warehouse in Rauma. The company also has the authorised consignee authorisation to receive goods arriving under a transit procedure. The goods arrive at Vuosaari harbour and are placed under a transit procedure. When the transport has arrived at the warehouse, Warehouse Ltd. requests an unloading permission for the transit with an arrival notification message.

When the unloading permission has been received and the goods have been unloaded into the customs warehouse, the holder of the procedure, Warehouse Ltd., lodges a customs declaration (IMA/7100) in Customs’ online service, and sends an unloading report message to Customs. The Electronic Service Centre discharges the transit and processes the customs warehousing declaration. The holder of the procedure receives a notification of release from Customs concerning the discharge of the transit as well as a release decision showing that the goods have been placed under the customs warehousing procedure.


The goods can be moved to the customs office of discharge specified in the customs warehousing authorisation, when the customs warehousing procedure is discharged by another customs procedure.

If customs warehousing is discharged by the transit procedure and the standard transit declaration is used, the transit procedure must be started at a customs office. The goods will be moved to the customs office under the customs warehousing procedure under the responsibility of the holder of the customs warehousing authorisation. Customs will seal the cargo before the release for the transit procedure if the principal does not have an authorisation for sealing.


The goods can be moved under the customs warehousing procedure to another authorisation holder, who will place the goods under the customs warehousing procedure again.

Example:

Warehouse Ltd. has placed the goods under the customs warehousing procedure. Customs has issued an MRN to the declaration. The goods are going to be moved from Warehouse Ltd.’s warehouse to Storage Ltd.’s warehouse under the responsibility of Storage Ltd. Storage Ltd. submits a customs warehousing declaration to Customs. In the declaration, the MRN issued to the Warehouse Ltd.’s earlier declaration is indicated as previous declaration.

When Storage Ltd. has received the release decision from Customs, Warehouse Ltd. can release the goods from its warehouse and they can be moved to Storage Ltd.’s warehouse. Storage Ltd. receives the goods and enters them in its records. Warehouse Ltd. submits a discharge notification to Customs. In the discharge notification, the company provides the MRN of the customs warehousing declaration with which the goods arrived at Warehouse Ltd.’s warehouse.


The goods can be placed under the customs warehousing procedure at the point of entry

The goods can be moved from the location where they were placed under the customs warehousing procedure to the premises of the authorisation holder with a customs warehousing declaration. If you wish to place the goods under the customs warehousing procedure immediately upon arrival and move them under the customs warehousing procedure from the point of entry to the premises of the authorisation holder, proceed in the following way:

  • Lodge the customs warehousing declaration and provide the reference number of the previous document, e.g. the MRN of the entry summary declaration or summary declaration and the goods item number.
  • In the declaration, indicate either the customs office of entry or the identifier of the temporary storage facility at the point of entry as location of goods.
  • When the goods arrive, they must be presented to Customs.
  • Customs will process the customs warehousing declaration.
  • You will receive a release decision from Customs.
  • The goods can be moved from the point of entry to a customs warehouse and unloaded there.
  • When the goods have been unloaded into the warehouse, enter them as well as the MRN of the customs declaration and the goods item numbers into the warehouse records. Attach the documents to the records.

Example:

Goods are arriving at Warehouse Ltd.'s customs warehouse in Kotka. They will be transported to Finland via Vaalimaa. Warehouse Ltd. lodges the customs warehousing declaration in advance and provides the MRN of the entry summary declaration and the goods item numbers previous document reference.

When the transport arrives in Vaalimaa, the driver presents the cargo and the MRN of the entry summary declaration to Customs. Customs registers that the goods have been presented, after which the customs warehousing declaration will be processed in Customs’ system. The release decision generated by Customs’ system will be used as the release document. When the driver has received the release decision, the transport of the goods will continue from the border towards the warehouse.

When the goods have been unloaded into the warehouse, Warehouse Ltd. enters the required customs declaration details of the goods, the MRN and the goods item number into the records. Since Warehouse Ltd. lodged the declaration in Customs’ online service, the release decision is a pdf file. Warehouse Ltd. attaches the release decision to the records. No discrepancies between the goods and the declaration details are detected during unloading, so Warehouse Ltd. does not need to amend the customs declaration.


Movements between different warehouses mentioned in the same authorisation can be executed without customs formalities, if the warehouses have joint records. In practice, these movements take place between one authorisation holder’s different storage facilities (different warehouse IDs). In this case, entering the location of the goods in the company’s records is enough. The addresses of the warehouses are specified in the authorisation for customs warehousing. Depending on the type of authorisation, the holder of the authorisation or holder of the procedure is responsible for making sure that the goods are not released for free circulation without Customs’ consent.

If warehouses mentioned in the same authorisation have separate accounts, the movements have to be carried out as transits or by again placing the goods under a customs warehousing procedure.