The Fiscal customs clearance Fiscal customs clearance is a term from the field of EU VAT law. More precisely, it is a regulation that provides some relief for importers with regard to import tax and VAT information in combination with imports from third countries into Europe. However, companies must fulfil certain requirements.

Who is affected by the Fiscal customs clearance?

The Fiscal customs clearance concerns companies that import goods from a third country into the EU via an EU member state. The companies are neither resident nor do they have any taxable turnover. Furthermore, the imported goods must not be destined for the importing country. However, the goods must be transferred to another EU country.

The basic idea behind Fiscal customs clearance is to reduce the administrative burden on companies and the costs of the current VAT pre-financing.

Companies to which these regulations apply can call on the help of a tax representative to handle the VAT formalities for imports.

In such a case, only the customs clearance takes place in the respective importing country. Immediately afterwards, the goods must be transported onwards to the actual EU country of destination. These goods are therefore treated as an intra-Community delivery.

The fiscal representative

A fiscal representative is now responsible for taking care of all VAT obligations that apply in the future importing country for the respective company. This means that they fulfil both the prescribed reporting obligations and the declaration obligations and thus also prepare the VAT return. The company has the advantage that it does not have to take care of this itself and is always on the safe side.

In Germany, various professional groups can act as fiscal representatives. These include tax consultants, auditors, freight forwarders and lawyers. The German fiscal representatives therefore have the task of looking after importers from other EU states when importing via Germany. Many other EU countries also handle this process in the same way as Germany.