Customs transit

What it means

Customs transit is the procedure under which goods travel from one customs office to another under customs supervision, with no duty or tax paid along the way. Payment falls due at the destination, or not at all if the goods are only crossing the Union.

Transit is neither storage nor release for free circulation, it is movement. While it runs, the customs debt stays potential, which is exactly why a bank guarantee or another security has to cover it in full.

Transit is not only for goods from third countries. Union goods can travel in transit too when the route crosses a third country, such as Switzerland or another common transit convention country, so that they keep their Union status and are not treated on return as an import liable to duty.

How it works in practice

The declaration is lodged electronically in NCTS, the consignment travels under its MRN, and only the customs office of destination discharges the procedure. The holder of the procedure carries the liability for the whole journey, not the driver and not the consignor.

Transit dovetails with other procedures: goods can run from the port into a customs warehouse and later into free circulation or back out on export. Each procedure carries its own authorisation, but one comprehensive guarantee can cover them all.

A company with regular deliveries from overseas ports can obtain authorised consignee status, which lets it end transit at its own warehouse rather than at a customs office. That saves trucks waiting, but it needs reliable records, and AEO status makes the route considerably easier.

What to watch out for

The usual loss comes from transit that was never discharged: the goods arrived, but the office of destination never closed the movement in the system. Customs opens an enquiry, and if the holder fails to evidence delivery in time it assesses duty and import VAT on the entire consignment and draws the guarantee.

Transit comes with a deadline for presenting the goods at the office of destination and often a prescribed route and customs seals. Transhipment without permission, a broken seal or an unexplained delay count as a breach of the procedure, and who bears the resulting cost towards the customer is set by the contract and the delivery term, not by customs.