Choosing a customs broker: what to ask

Choose a customs broker on what you can check before the first shipment: whether it represents you directly or indirectly, whether it is established and authorised where it has to be, its price per declaration and per extra line, whose account pays the duty, and what it sends back after each clearance. The form of representation comes first, because it decides who is the declarant and who owes the duty [1].

Direct or indirect representation

A broker acting as direct representative declares in your name: you are the declarant and you owe the import duty. As indirect representative it declares in its own name on your behalf, and you both owe the duty, jointly and severally [1]. Neither form is better in general; what matters is that you know which one is used for your imports, and that it is written down. The guide on direct or indirect representation covers who owes the import VAT in each.

Its status

A customs representative has to be established in the EU customs territory, apart from a waiver when it acts for persons who need not be established there [1]. In the Netherlands every representative, direct or indirect, has to meet the criteria for authorised economic operators: compliance, a sound trade and transport administration, financial solvency and practical professional competence [3].

A broker can also hold the status of authorised economic operator (AEO) itself. Article 39 sets the criteria: no serious or repeated infringements of customs and tax rules, a high level of control over operations and records, financial solvency, and practical standards of competence or professional qualifications for the work [1]. The European Commission's query page lets you search AEO holders by name, issuing country and type of authorisation [2].

The price list

Ask for the list in writing, for your own shipment shape: how many tariff numbers one declaration includes, what each further one costs, and what comes on top for the customs system, storage, inspection or a correction after clearance. Published lists differ widely in the price per extra line, so the number of lines on your typical invoice decides more than the headline price. The guide on customs clearance costs sets the published lists of German and Dutch providers side by side.

Whose account pays the duty

Customs grants deferment of payment on application and against security [1]. A broker that pays your duty and import VAT from its own deferment account can charge a fee on the amount it advances; the costs guide lists the published ones. If your business has its own deferment, agree which account each shipment is paid from.

What the broker needs from you

The supporting documents for the procedure have to be in the declarant's possession and at the disposal of customs when the declaration is lodged [1]. In practice that is the supplier's invoice, the packing list and the transport document, and for a preferential rate the proof of origin the trade agreement asks for [6]. Everyone involved in the formalities has to give customs the documents and information it asks for [1]. A good broker asks early for what is missing, and you get the questions only it can answer from the documents: what a product is made of, what it is used for, where it was made.

What you get back

Ask for the declaration as it was filed with every clearance, not only the broker's invoice. The documents for customs controls are kept for at least three years [1], and the filed declaration is the record of which code, origin and value were declared. In direct representation it was lodged in your name, so those are the particulars you answer for [1].

The empowerment, in writing

Customs may ask the broker for evidence that you empowered it [1]. German customs accepts it in writing, scanned and sent by email, or as a digitally signed authorisation [4]. Irish Revenue expects an authorisation along the lines of its specimens, one for direct and one for indirect representation, and a letter that only lets the agent use your duty account is not enough [5].

Seven questions before the first shipment

1. Do you act as direct or indirect representative for my imports?
2. At which customs offices, ports and airports do you clear?
3. Do you hold AEO status, and under which authorisation number?
4. What does one declaration with my usual number of tariff numbers cost?
5. Do you pay duty and import VAT from your own deferment account, and at what fee?
6. Who asks my supplier when a document is missing, and when?
7. Will you send me the filed declaration with every clearance?