<\/p>\n
When you use a freight forwarder, carrier or other person established in the EU to import goods into EU territory, it is very likely that they will have offered to sign a mandate authorizing to act in the name and on behalf of your company according to the mode of \u201cdirect\u201d representation. However, this mode of representation is only authorized by customs regulations if the person represented (endorsing the status of “declarant”) has an establishment within the EU.<\/p>\n
In the case of a company established outside the EU which imports goods into the territory of the EU, it is necessary to appoint a freight forwarder, transporter or other person established in the EU to act in his own name as “declarant” (“indirect” mode of representation)<\/strong> for the purposes of customs clearance formalities on behalf of the represented company. Indeed, the \u201cdeclarant\u201d debtor of the customs debt must always be established in the customs territory of the EU (see below).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The debtor of the customs debt is the “declarant” (article 77-3 of the UCC), that is to say the person in whose name the declaration is made (article 5-15) of the UCC). The declaration can be made either in the name of the person represented (\u201cdirect\u201d mode of representation) or in the name of the representative (\u201cindirect\u201d mode of representation). In the latter case, the person represented is jointly debtor of the customs debt with the representative acting in his own name.<\/p>\n In “direct” representation mode, the forwarder draws up the import declaration in the name and on behalf of the person represented, so that the forwarder is not himself debtor of the customs debt (only the person represented is debtor). In “indirect” representation mode, the freight forwarder draws up the declaration in his own name, so that he himself becomes the debtor of the customs debt together with the person represented.<\/p>\n Regardless of the “direct” or “indirect” mode of representation, the declarant must always be established in the EU (article 170-2 of the UCC). This therefore excludes the use of the direct representation mode when the importer represented with the status of “declarant” is established outside the European Union.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Furthermore, a distinction should be made between the concepts of importer in the customs sense (as the \u201cactual receiver\u201d of the imported goods) and in the fiscal sense (as the person \u201cliable\u201d for the VAT debt due on import). When a company established outside France clears goods on its behalf, it is not necessarily the “actual recipient”, and may have to mandate a person (freight forwarder, carrier, etc.) to receive the goods. In this case, the recipient of the goods designated as importer in box 8 of the customs declaration (importer in the customs sense) is different from the person liable for import VAT (the company represented established outside France and importer in the fiscal sense).<\/p>\n In this case, the note to operators of 25 October 2016 from the Directorate General of Customs provides for the separate mention of the customs importer and the fiscal importer on the customs document:<\/p>\n With respect to the VAT due on import \u201cThe tax must be paid by the person designated as the actual recipient of the goods on the import declaration. However, this tax is jointly and severally due by the\u00a0customs declarant who acts within the framework of an indirect representation mandate, as defined by article 5 of the Community customs code.<\/em> ” (article 293 A-1, 3rd paragraph FTC).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sorry, this entry is only available in Fran\u00e7ais.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actualites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lrf.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lrf.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lrf.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lrf.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lrf.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2936"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lrf.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2976,"href":"https:\/\/www.lrf.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions\/2976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lrf.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lrf.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lrf.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Who is the debtor of the customs debt?<\/h2>\n
Customs importer vs fiscal importer<\/h2>\n
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\nExample: “1004 – FR xx xxx xxx xxx – dd \/ mm \/ yyyy”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWho is liable for import VAT?<\/h2>\n