Fallback procedure in customs warehousing

Customs warehousing declarations are lodged electronically either via Customs’ online service or via message exchange. The fallback procedure is used if the customer’s system or Customs’ system or the connection between them is not working.

  • In Customs’ online service, the fallback procedure is a paper-based declaration.
  • In message exchange, the fallback procedure is a paper-based declaration or a declaration submitted via Customs’ online service.

 

Completing a customs warehousing declaration under the fallback procedure

In certain situations, the declaration lodged under the fallback procedure shall be lodged electronically after the end of the fallback procedure. You will need a permission from Customs to use the fallback procedure when you use a paper-based declaration as the fallback procedure.

Planned service interruptions

When Customs notifies of a planned service interruption, the notification is at the same time a permission to use the fallback procedure. You can subscribe to our notices of service interruptions and disturbances and have the information sent directly to your email address. Customs notifies of planned service interruptions with an advance notice at least two days in advance. When Customs notifies of the end of the service interruption, the use of the fallback procedure ends.

Other service interruptions

The notice of an service interruption emailed by Customs is at the same time a permission to use the fallback procedure. When the service interruption is over, Customs will notify of the end of the interruption At the same time, the use of the fallback procedure ends.

Fallback procedure for Customs’ online service

If Customs’ online service is not available, lodge the declaration with the SAD form either to Customs’ Electronic Service Centre or to the nearest customs office. In the SAD form, enter ‘Fallback procedure’ in box 44 (Additional information).

Submit your declaration in the online service when the service interruption is over.

Request the permission to use the fallback procedure from Customs. Send the form by email to spake.varastointi(at)tulli. When you have received the permission, you can submit the paper-based declaration with the SAD form to the nearest customs office providing customer service or to Customs’ Electronic Service Centre at spake.varastointi(at)tulli. In the SAD form, enter ‘Fallback procedure’ in box 44 (Additional information). Submit the declaration with a message when the service interruption is over and use the reference you indicated in the SAD form.

Fallback procedure for message exchange

  • Problem in Customs’ systems: paper-based declaration as the fallback procedure

When you have received a notice of the service interruption from Customs, you can submit the paper-based declaration with the SAD form to the nearest customs office providing customer service or to Customs’ Electronic Service Centre. In the SAD form, enter ‘Fallback procedure’ in box 44 (Additional information). Submit the declaration with a message when the service interruption is over and use the reference you indicated in the SAD form.

  • Problem in the customer’s systems: paper-based declaration as the fallback procedure

Request the permission to use the fallback procedure from Customs. Send the form by email to spake.varastointi(at)tulli.

When you have received the permission, you can submit the paper-based declaration with the SAD form to the nearest customs office providing customer service or to Customs’ Electronic Service Centre at spake.varastointi(at)tulli. In the SAD form, enter ‘Fallback procedure’ in box 44 (Additional information). Submit the declaration with a message when the service interruption is over and use the reference you indicated in the SAD form.

  • Problem in the customer’s systems: declaration submitted via Customs’ online service as the fallback procedure

You will not need a separate permission to use the fallback procedure if you submit the declaration via Customs’ online service. A declaration submitted via Customs’ online service as the fallback procedure will not have to be submitted with a message when the service interruption is over.

A (Office of dispatch/export/destination) Enter the warehouse deposit number or arrival number used for entering the goods in the warehouse records. In addition to box A, you can enter the number in box 7 or 44. If you enter the number in box 7 or 44, state clearly that it is the warehouse deposit number and not the reference or other additional information.

1 (1) Declaration IM: undeclared goods are placed under the customs warehousing procedure.

1 (2) Declaration 

A = complete declaration

D = complete customs declaration lodged prior to the presentation of the goods to customs

2 Consignor/Exporter: the last seller of the goods prior to their importation into the EU territory. Optional.

3 Forms (only if there are several forms), e.g. 1/2

5 Number of items: number of items to be declared, in practice, number of item tabs to be completed

7 Reference Number: the reference identifying the declarant. The same reference shall be indicated in the electronic declaration submitted after the service interruption.

8 Consignee’: enter the name of the importer, if any.

8 (No) the consignee’s EORI number: enter the EORI number of the importer, if any.

14 Declarant/Representative: Enter in this box the details of the representative, if any (enter the details of the importer only if the importer and the declarant are the same person).

  • Name of company
  • EORI number
  • code for role in lodging the declaration: 1 = declarant (the holder of the procedure acts personally as declarant), 2 = direct representation or 3 = indirect representation

 

17a Code for country of destination: the Member State where the goods are located when they are placed under the customs warehousing procedure. Enter FI.

19 Container: If the goods were imported in a container, enter 1. In other cases, enter 0.

30 Code for location of goods: The location where the goods may be examined, indicated by the declarant. Location specification in the code list. If necessary, enter also e.g. the warehouse ID.

31 Packages and description of goods

Read about how to enter the description of goods in section ‘Enter the common trade name as description of the goods’. In addition to the description of the goods, enter in box 31:

The container number, if the goods are in the container:

  • four letters + six digits + hyphen + control number, e.g. ABCU123456-5

Marks and numbers to identify the goods:

  • Bulk goods or unpacked goods: entering the details is optional.

Number and type of packages in the goods item; unpacked goods NF=1 unit, NG=several units and NE=unpacked.

  • Codes for package types (code list)

32 Item number (the total number must correspond to the total number of items provided in box 5).

33 Commodity code: enter the commodity code of the goods at the level of at least six digits, use the CN code or the Taric number. Make sure that the code is correct.

34a Country of origin code (code list)

37 Procedure code

In the first part of the column, enter the customs procedure under which the goods are to be placed. The second part of the column shows the previous procedure (code list) Even though the code is entered in the data for each goods item, you can only declare goods to the customs warehousing procedure with a customs warehousing declaration.

The code for the customs warehousing procedure is 71. The most common procedure codes are

  • 7100, used when there is no previous procedure, i.e. when the goods have been in temporary storage or they have been placed under the customs warehousing procedure directly at the border customs office or after transit.
  • 7171, used when moving goods from one customs warehouse to another
  • 7151, used when the previous procedure is inward processing
  • 7153, used when the previous procedure is temporary admission

31 Packages and description of goods

Description of goods in the goods item

  • Common trade name used to identify goods. General names such as ‘electronic equipment’, ‘computer parts’, ‘car parts’, ‘electronics’, ‘machines’, ‘clothes’, ‘footwear’, ‘spare parts’ or ‘tools’ are not accepted as goods descriptions; the goods have to be specified.
  • Examples: Peripheral units for computers are entered e.g. as ‘printer’, ‘keyboard’, ‘computer screen’. The description ‘spare parts’ is not sufficient; it has to be specified what kind of spare parts are in question, e.g. ‘fanbelt’. Clothes are specified as ‘t-shirts’, ‘trousers’, ‘gloves’, etc. Footwear are entered e.g. as ‘boots’, ‘women’s shoes’, ‘trainers’.

The goods description cannot be changed to a more general description when the goods are deposited into the warehouse, during storage or when taken out of storage.  Although the goods description can be specified further. This further specified information must be entered into the stock records of the warehouse, and these corrected entries in the records are to be approved by the Customs office that supervises the warehouse.

If the goods description in the customs declaration does not fulfil the prescribed requirements, Customs can refuse to receive the declaration.

Entering the supplementary unit in the customs declaration is important, since possible taxes are levied based on this data among other things.  Qualifiers connected to the supplementary unit are the quantity of packages and type, net mass and gross mass and in some instances other quantity.

35 Gross mass

If the declaration contains several goods items, enter the gross mass of each item to be cleared for each goods item. The gross mass is the weight (kg) of the goods including packaging, without the weight of the container.

41 Supplementary units

If the supplementary unit of the goods has been entered in Taric together with the Taric code of the goods, it must be declared in the customs declaration. A supplementary unit is, for example: litre, piece or pair. To avoid any vagueness, Customs recommends that the number of pieces always be entered for piece goods. Thus, in addition to e.g. the number of cartons (CR) containing computers, clothes or tableware, enter the number of pieces (NAR). The supplementary unit shall be entered in official supplementary measurement units (code list).

40) Summary declaration/Previous document

Customs warehousing is usually preceded by an entry summary declaration, summary declaration or T1 transit. The ‘previous function’ in the customs declaration is the data of a previous document or procedure. It is very important to enter the correct data of a previous document to ensure that the audit trail of the goods remains intact when moving from one declaration to another. The identifier of a previous declaration is usually the MRN and possible specific goods item number. It pays to be precise in regards to the specific goods item number. The number is not always 1; there can be dozens of items.

The person making the declaration must ensure that the MRN and possible specific goods item number is correct. The transport operator (for example, a shipping company or airline) or their representative, must notify the person responsible for the customs clearance of these numbers.

The same MRN may contain several goods items. By declaring the correct goods item number, the temporary storage that precedes the customs warehousing can be discharged successfully. Furthermore, the processing of the declaration by Customs can be speeded up and the need for retrospective inquiries decreases.

46 Statistical value: The statistical value of the goods item as it is mentioned in the data. Note that the holder of the authorisation for comprehensive guarantee shall keep track of the value of the stored goods.

49 Type of warehouse, enter the letter code for the type of warehouse into which the goods are moved.

  • U = private customs warehouse (CWP in the authorisation)
  • R = public customs warehouse type I (CWI in the authorisation)
  • S = public customs warehouse type II (CW2 in the authorisation)
  • The warehouse ID issued by Customs (e.g. FI1234567-8R0001).
  • Example: U FI1234567-8R0001

44 Additional information: Documents produced/Certificates and authorisations

Enter here ‘Fallback procedure’ Enter here the details of any additional documents. Document code (code list), document number and date. Please note that there are no mandatory attachments to the customs declaration regarding customs warehousing, unless the goods are restricted.

44 Additional information: Documents produced/Certificates and authorisations

When the goods are placed under the customs warehousing procedure after inward processing (procedure 7151) provide the following details in this box:

  • The abbreviation “IP” and, when necessary, the number of the authorisation for inward processing (standard authorisation procedure) and the INF number
  • If the goods placed under the inward processing procedure are subject to commercial policy measures (e.g. and anti-dumping duty), provide also the abbreviation “C P M”

When the goods are placed under the customs warehousing procedure after temporary admission (procedure 7153) provide the following details in this box:

  • The abbreviation “TA” and, when necessary, the number of the authorisation for temporary admission (standard authorisation procedure)
  • Provide this abbreviation also when a pleasure boat registered outside the customs territory and fiscal territory of the EU is placed under the customs warehousing procedure for winter storage.

54 Place and date

The holder of the procedure or the holder of the authorisation signs the declaration, depending on the type of warehouse. If an authorised representative / agent has been entered in box 14, this person signs the declaration.

  • Place and date
  • Signature
  • Name and surname, position in the company
  • Phone number and email address