Parties

Provide the parties relating to the customs declaration under “Parties”. You can provide details of the following parties: submitter, declarant, declarant’s representative, importer, exporter, buyer, seller and other trader (e.g. the party responsible for VAT).

You should also provide here the authorisation number, if the procedure requires an authorisation and you already have an authorisation granted by the Customs Authorisation Centre. Read the detailed guidance below.

General information about providing the trader identifier

Every party in the declaration must have an identification number, either an EORI number or some other unique identifier.

The EORI number is mandatory for the importer, the declarant and the representative when they are businesses. Foreign businesses must also provide the EORI number. The EORI number of a Finnish business consists of the Business ID and the country code (e.g. FI1234567-8). If a business’s identification number does not have the EORI number status, the import declaration will be rejected. You can check the validity of the company’s EORI number in the Commission’s EORI number validation service. Apply for the EORI registration from Customs in advance, if you need it.

The EORI number doesn’t need to be provided as the identifier for other traders (e.g. exporter, buyer, seller). Private individuals usually don’t need to have an EORI number either. In such cases, provide one of the following identification numbers:

• Finnish traders: the Business ID
• foreign traders: the VAT number
• Finnish individuals: the country code, the personal identity code
• foreign individuals: the country code, the date of birth (e.g. US25071980).

Please note: do not include spaces in the identification number. Write e.g. the numbers immediately after the country code. In addition to the identification number, provide the trader’s name and address.

In addition to the identification number, you can also provide the trader office code issued by Customs. A representative must always provide their trader office code. If you provide the trader office code in the declaration, the service automatically completes, in the declaration details to be archived by Customs, the address details already entered in Customs’ customer register on the basis of earlier authorisation details. You can check your trader office code in our “My details” service.

Under “Declarant”, “Representative” and “Importer”, some of the details will be displayed automatically when you tick the box “Use the details of the authenticated trader”. The address details according to the trader office code will then be completed in the declaration. As default, the address of the business’s head office according to the BIS is displayed as the trader office address details (trader office code “000”). In the case of a foreign business, the address used when registering for EORI may be displayed instead. If you have entered the trader office code of some other office than the head office in the settings, the service retrieves the address details according to that trader office code.

Contact person 

The contact person is the submitter of the declaration. Customs may contact the contact the contact person for further information.

If you have saved your details in advance in the settings, you can tick the box “Use the details of the authenticated person”, and the field for trader office code will be completed automatically in the declaration. If you’re not using the details of the authenticated trader, enter your name, email address and phone number in the fields.

Declarant 

The declarant is responsible for placing the goods under the procedure and for the accuracy of the declaration. The importer is usually entered as the declarant. In the case of indirect representation, the representative is entered as the declarant.

If you tick the box “Use the details of the authenticated trader” and you have saved the trader office code in advance in the settings, the field for trader office code will be completed automatically in the declaration.

If you’re not using the details of the authenticated trader, provide an EORI number or a private individual’s personal identity code as the identification number. An individual’s identification number is made up of the country code FI and the personal identity code. If the individual doesn’t have a Finnish personal identity code, enter the country code and the date of birth. The date of birth is entered in the format dd.mm.yyyy.

The service will automatically complete the fields for name and address details as well as trader nature. 

Authorisations: Details of a written authorisation granted by Customs

In tax border declarations, no details are provided under “Authorisations”.

Representative

If you are lodging a declaration as a representative on the importer’s behalf, add your details under “Representative” by clicking on the button “+Add representative”  A forwarding agency, for example, can act as a representative. The representative must always have an EORI.

If you have saved your details in advance in the settings, you can tick the box “Use the details of the authenticated trader”, and the trader office code will be filled in automatically in the declaration. If you’re not using the details of the authenticated trader, enter the identification number in the declaration. The service will automatically complete the fields for name and address details as well as trader nature, if the identification number is an EORI number. Otherwise, enter the name, street address, postal code and city and select the country and the trader nature from the drop-down menu.

Select the status of representation from the drop-down menu. It can be direct representation, indirect representation or direct representation on guarantor’s responsibility. If you use direct representation on guarantor’s responsibility, select “2 – Direct representation” from the drop-down menu and tick the box “On guarantor’s responsibility”. 

Direct representation: A direct representative lodges the customs declaration on behalf of and in the name of the importer. The importer is responsible for the correctness of the information provided. The importer’s guarantee is used in the declaration, and the importer is responsible for the customs debt. The representative is responsible for the customs debt only insofar as they were aware or should have been aware of the incorrectness of information provided in the customs declaration.

Indirect representation: The customs declaration is lodged in the name of the representative but on behalf of the importer. An indirect representative is also responsible for the correctness of the information provided in the declaration. The representative’s guarantee is used in the declaration, and the representative is responsible for the customs debt. However, in addition to the indirect representative, the importer is also always responsible for the customs debt.

Direct representation on guarantor’s responsibility The customs declaration is lodged in the name of and on behalf of the importer. The representative is responsible for the customs debt only insofar as they were aware or should have been aware of the incorrectness of information provided in the customs declaration. The representative’s guarantee is used in the declaration, and the representative commits to paying the customs debt up to the amount of the guarantee.

If you have by mistake opened a representative’s details by clicking on “+ Add representatives”, but there is no representative, remove the representative’s details by clicking on “Remove representative”.

Importer 

The importer must always be provided. The importer is a business or person that has originally agreed on the import of the goods and is therefore the consignee of the goods. If the importer is a business, the EORI number must be provided as the importer’s identification number.

If you have saved your details in advance in the settings and you are not using a representative, you can tick the box “Use the details of the authenticated trader”. The service will then automatically complete your details in the declaration under “Importer”. Otherwise, enter the importer’s identification number, name, street address, postal code, city, country and trader nature. The trader nature is selected from the drop-down menu.

For an importer established within the EU, always provide the EORI number issued by the importer’s own country as the identification number.

Exporter

The exporter is the last seller or consignor of the goods before the import of the goods across the tax border of the EU. You can only provide one exporter. If you are lodging a periodic declaration of a VAT-registered importer, you must lodge a separate declaration of the goods consignments of each exporter.

Additional AEO supply chain actors

In tax border declarations, no AEO supply chain actor is provided.