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Writer's pictureArne Mielken

Customs warehouses: Keep Your Cash - Now and Forever - But how?

Customs warehousing is a cost-effective way to store foreign products in your country that are destined for another. How can a business benefit from it?

Recent global events fuelled a surge in demand for warehouse space among retailers and logistics providers. More and more importers are considering bonded or customs warehousing as a solution to the extra duties and red tape.

Bonded warehousing allows you to delay paying customs charges and VAT on goods imported from outside your country until they are removed and sold. This offers significant cash flow benefits to businesses and owners, who can avoid the double duty on goods that are imported into one country and then exported to a different country.

My word is my bond

But firms need to be sure they are working with warehousing and logistics partners who understand the rules and regulations governing these duty-free zones. And logistics firms expanding into bonded warehousing for the first time to meet growing demand need a clear understanding of their reporting and compliance obligations.


You have to fulfil certain requirements when applying to your customs authorities for a licence to operate a customs warehouse, such as having an economic operators registration and identification (EORI) number. You’ll also need to have a good customs compliance record and demonstrate you have a real business need for your bonded warehouse. Bear in mind that you will also have to provide a financial guarantee to cover potential import duty and VAT liabilities. It takes about eight weeks to process an application, so it’s advisable to plan well in advance.

Do your sums

It’s essential that you work out whether the amount of duty you are likely to save with a bonded warehouse justifies the investment in time and money. Also, ask yourself whether you have the necessary infrastructure to operate such a facility.

If you’re a logistics operator, you’ll need to satisfy potential clients that you have a robust IT system in place for tracking goods going in and out. This means being able to provide a clear audit trail to demonstrate your compliance with customs’ stringent reporting requirements.

Handle with care

Remember that goods stored in bonded warehouses are subject to strict rules and regular checks from customs officials. These govern what type of products can be stored and what you can and can’t do with them.

Bonded goods can only be handled in certain ways: to preserve them in storage, improve their presentation, and prepare them for distribution or resale.

Operating a customs warehouse certainly offers attractive benefits to both importers and the third-party logistics providers who operate them. But there are both costs and time-consuming reporting requirements that need to be considered before opening such a facility.

Ultimately, importers need to be confident that they are working with logistics partners who really understand the rules and regulations governing bonded warehouses.


More Information & Links


1) How to Apply for Customs Warehouse Operation License

How to Apply to Operate a Customs Warehouse for Importing to the UK?


2) Duty Relief: How to operate a Customs Warehouse

Importing goods from outside allows businesses to save the import duty + taxes if they store it in a customs warehouse, argues Arne Mielken of Customs Manager Ltd.


3) Maximizing Your Business Efficiency: A Guide to Utilizing Customs Warehousing

Your Guide to Importing Goods to a Customs Warehouse: Steps and Requirements


4) Duty Relief: What operations are allowed in a customs warehouse?

You can carry out some repairs or processing to your goods in a customs warehouse without using inward processing, this is known as the usual forms of handling.



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We aim to empower people with import, export and transport responsibilities with helpful advice, insightful training and relevant trade intelligence services. We devote all our passion and energy to helping businesses grow faster cross-border. Working with us means having your own multilingual Customs Manager on standby to help you trade effectively, efficiently and, of course, compliantly wherever you want to go. Includes Brexit support and the ability to lodge customs declarations and making sense of rules of origin, customs classification and customs valuation to make but a few.

 

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