Customs & Bonded · Tier 2

Standard clearance is the default. Bonded is the cash-flow lever nobody is showing you.

Every importer pays duty + VAT + brokerage on day-one of EU entry. Few realise that bonded warehousing can defer that cash outflow for months — or, if goods are re-exported, avoid duty and VAT entirely. We compute both side-by-side, with TARIC chapter-level duty rates, all 27 EU national VAT rates, brokerage fees, and the bonded math (storage + bond fee + cost-of-capital benefit).

Compare clearance routes How bonded works

How bonded actually works

Goods stored under customs supervision. Liability suspended.

01

Goods enter EU under T1 transit

No duty or VAT is paid on arrival. Goods move under customs supervision into an AEO-authorised bonded warehouse — a standard public bonded site or a partner facility we operate in Hamburg, Rotterdam, or Gdańsk.

02

A bond is posted with customs

A financial guarantee covers the suspended duty + VAT liability. Typical fee is ~1.2% of customs value. The guarantee can be a partner bank's facility (we arrange) or your own.

03

Goods can be stored indefinitely

EU customs warehousing has no statutory storage limit. Goods can be repackaged, relabelled (limited operations), and consolidated. They cannot be modified, sold, or used while in bonded regime.

04

Two exit paths

Release into free circulation: duty + VAT paid at exit, at the rate in force on that day. Re-export: goods leave EU customs territory; duty and VAT are never paid. Bonded is the only legal way to skip both.

When bonded is the right call

Three scenarios where bonded beats standard clearance.

Re-export probable

Samples, returns, transit consolidation

If there is any chance the goods will leave the EU again — supplier returns, sample distribution to non-EU buyers, or an Asia-Africa transit hub — bonded re-export skips duty and VAT entirely. The savings are usually an order of magnitude greater than the bonded fees.

Duty avoided in full
VAT avoided in full
Bonded fee €5–15 per cbm/month
1.2% bond on customs value

Slow-moving stock

Seasonal goods, dead-stock SKUs

If goods will sell over 90+ days, the cash-flow benefit of deferring duty + VAT compounds. At 6% cost-of-capital and €100k of customs value, deferring 6 months frees €1,800 in working capital. That can exceed the bonded fees on larger consignments.

Standard wins

Fast-movers (sold < 30 days)

Goods clearing your books inside a month rarely benefit from bonded — the storage and bond fees exceed any cash-flow benefit. Most retail and DTC importers default to standard clearance for the bulk of their stock and use bonded only on long-tail SKUs.

Why this is hard to get right

Duty rates depend on HS code, origin, and preferences nobody validates.

HS classification

Duty rate is set by the 8-10 digit TARIC code. Wrong classification can mean 0% vs 12% — or anti-dumping at 50%+. Most freight forwarders use the importer's stated code without validating it. We benchmark to chapter-level here; production work uses the full TARIC ladder and BTI rulings.

Anti-dumping and safeguards

CN-origin steel (chapter 72/73), aluminium (76), and certain plastics (39) attract anti-dumping duties of 10–60% on top of MFN. Forwarders rarely flag this until the entry is filed. We surface the overlay at quote time so you don't get a surprise.

Preferential origin

EU-Vietnam FTA, Bangladesh / Cambodia EBA, Pakistan GSP+, Türkiye customs union — each gives 50–100% duty reduction with valid origin proof (REX, Form A, A.TR, or invoice declaration). Most SMEs don't claim these because the paperwork looks daunting.

VAT recoverable but cash-flow real

VAT-registered importers can recover EU import VAT on the next return. But the gap between paying it and reclaiming it is real cash out the door — typically 30–90 days. Bonded defers that gap; postponed-VAT-accounting (PVA) in some EU states defers it too.

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