Customs guides
Plain answers for customs brokers and declarants in Germany and the Netherlands, written from the regulations and the customs administrations' own pages.
Customs documents
- Invoice, packing list and bill of lading comparedThe invoice carries the sale, the packing list the packages and weights, the bill of lading the transport. An import declaration draws on all three.
- What a customs declaration needs from the invoiceThe invoice supports the declared value and gives the declaration its seller, buyer, delivery terms, currency, prices, descriptions and origin.
- Customs value basics: what CIF and FOB changeCustoms value starts from the price paid, plus freight and insurance to where the goods enter the EU. CIF to that port includes them; FOB does not.
Tariff classification
- AI customs classification: what a proposal must showAI customs classification gives a proposal, not a decision: a code with its path and its facts, and a question where the invoice falls short.
- Using binding tariff information as a referenceA BTI decision binds customs and its holder for three years. Decisions held by others bind no one else, but show how customs classified similar goods.
- When the invoice is not enough to classifyAn invoice line names a product, not always the facts the tariff classifies on. A ceramic plate is 6911 if porcelain, 6912 if not.
- How a commodity code is builtSix digits from the Harmonized System, two from the Combined Nomenclature, two from TARIC. Germany adds an eleventh digit for national purposes.
Customs systems
- The EU customs reform and the data hubRegulation (EU) 2026/2108 replaces Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 from 21 September 2027, and its EU Customs Data Hub is mandatory for all from 1 March 2034.
- Will AI replace customs brokers?The declarant still answers for what is lodged, AI or not. Where EU law puts the responsibility, and what AI changes in preparing a customs declaration.
- ATLAS and DMS: the German and Dutch systemsGermany lodges import declarations in ATLAS, the Netherlands in DMS. Both carry the EU data set of the Union Customs Code, each with national rules on top.
How these guides are written
Each guide answers one question a declarant meets in daily work: the short answer first, then the detail. The rules and figures come from sources we opened and cite at the foot of each page: the Union Customs Code and its implementing acts, the European Commission, the World Customs Organization, German customs at zoll.de and Dutch customs at douane.nl.
The guides cite the Union Customs Code in force today, Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, which the new code, Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, replaces from 21 September 2027 [1].
The guides describe what the rules say. They are not legal advice: for a specific shipment, ask the customs office, or apply for a binding decision.
Sources
- 1Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 establishing the Union Customs Code and the European Union Customs Authority, Article 287, Official Journal of the European Union, 2026-09-19. Read 2026-09-26.
Send us 20 past cases.
For customs brokers in Germany and the Netherlands. We prepare each one, you judge the result.
Pick a time below for a thirty-minute call, or write to us.
Loading the calendar… Book on cal.com