Import

You are an international company and would like to participate in foreign trade but are being confronted with bigger and bigger challenges? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

As an independent service provider, we have 30 years of experience in solving customs clearance using bundling. Our secret? We rely on international solutions that have not limited themselves by local circumstances.

We offer you:

• Import customs clearance in Europe using the national IT systems. Clearance using ATLAS, SAGITTA, AGS, CELINA, PLDA, e-Zoll and other systems guarantee a smooth procedure.
• Porath Customs Agents will oversee the fiscal representation of your company and reliably take care of the VAT requirements applicable in each country.
• We will prepare and turn in the summary import application (ESumA).
• We will store your goods under a summary declaration in interim custody until customs provisions have been resolved.
• Application of tax numbers, EORI numbers (Economic Operator Registration and Identification) and VAT identification numbers (USt-IdNr.).
• We will oversee the issuing and neutralization of preference certificates.
• Declaration of excise goods through the electronic EMCS (Excise Movement and Control System).
• Should the location of the interim warehousing of goods need to be changed or the goods need to be inspected, Porath Customs Agents will oversee the organization of the necessary custodian replacement.
• It is also our job to take care of veterinary declaration, including the transport (there and back) to the inspection location.
• We oversee the organization of inspections with transport.

Unproblematic bonded warehouse during import and transit? Porath Customs Agents make it possible. Thanks to certain bonded warehouse procedures, goods can be stored without time limitation, import duties or trade measures. Your goods are placed, due to an alternative customs procedure, in a bonded warehouse where they are first declared at the end of storage.

The practical aspects as well as the requirements of this kind of bonded warehouse: The first step is to apply for a permit for this method of import through the customs office. This application is a complicated process, which has several requirements. What are they? Ask us!

After you receive permission, the goods must then be registered through ATLAS and immediately brought to the warehousing location. Every warehouse must be officially documented and is subject to steady inventory.

We will take care of the following warehousing tasks for you:

• Consultation as to choosing the right kind of storage.
• Support in getting permission for the bonded warehouse.
• We will work through the process together with you.
• Complete management of your warehousing through outsourcing.
• Assistance during customs inspection and inventory.

You are a foreign company and you would like to import goods into the European Union. As an applicant, you are automatically considered a tax debtor in the respective country and are expected to pay import tax.

Under certain circumstances, and as long as national law allows, you can let a fiscal representative act for you. This way, you avoid the administrative work of applying for a personal tax identity in the respective country and are not responsible for any declaration to the financial officials of the import country.

Porath Customs Agents is your reliable fiscal representative – under the motto “A small organizational procedure for us, big advantages for you”:

• We will manage all formalities around tax registration: recapitulative statements and VAT returns, accounting records and receipts as well as registration of intra Community trade statistics.
• You will profit by having a main contact person – independent of where the declaration takes place.
• Your goods will not be handled by the customs offices in various countries but be handled by the office at the point of entry into the EU. The logistics procedures go much faster and time and expenses are reduced, due to increased flexibility.
• The buyer receives the goods already customs cleared and has free access to them. Several customs formalities are relinquished in connection to the shipment procedure.
• If we process the goods in the 42 procedure for release to free trade, you do not have to pay any import VAT (EUSt) at customs clearance. It will be replaced by the turn-over tax payed to the EU destination country. The immediate payment of EU VAT, including applicable payment and inspection procedures, is omitted – the flow of goods is simplified and the cash flow greatly improved.
• After customs clearance, the goods are immediately considered an inner-EU shipment and delivered to another EU country.
• The expenses accrued through our service as a fiscal representative for a foreign company outside of the EU can be made tax-free – this is a big advantage in EU countries, when calculating the non-deductible VAT.

Customs control for a fair and legal transport of goods: Almost all declarations for customs clearance are done electronically. Based on the data given during the goods pre-registration (ESumA), a security based risk analysis is done. This can lead to your goods being subjected to a physical inspection or screening by customs.

Porath Customs Agents will professionally guide you through customs. Porath Customs Agents has been the owner of AEO F license since 2008 (since the introduction of the union custom code C/S) for customs security simplification and safety. This has a positive effect on risk analysis, since AEOs are considered especially dependable and have been rated as low risk. Depending on how the respective national law is implemented, we are able to inform you of a planned control in advance – due to the AEO status.

A control has been mandated, we will take care of it for you:

• We will inform you immediately after we receive the information that a control has been mandated.
• If requested, we will organize the transport from the terminal to the controlling office and manage the interim warehousing using a change in custodianship and take care of the necessary formalities.
• Customs will make a report of the customs control. Should you have any disputes, you can immediately turn to your contact person at Porath Customs Agents – together we can take necessary measures.

Animal source foods, non-food items as well as some plant source foods: The veterinary and import office is responsible for controlling all shipments from third-party countries that contain animal products. A veterinary health officer inspects the goods and any presented documents at the respective border control and decides on the importability of those goods.

The customs application for import goods to be released for free circulation could be rejected at the customs office, if certain documents are missing (such as the proof of health for animals) or if import is denied by the health officer. In such cases, the goods are returned.

The expert team at Porath Customs Agents has years of experience in dealing with veterinary customs control – we offer you precise services and all from one source:

• Organizing the transport of goods from the container terminal to the inspections office.
• Overseeing the application and clearance procedures at veterinary inspection.
• The complete and correct import declaration.
• Planning the combined transport including transfer and preparation at the terminal, or the intermodal transport after customs control.