Sometimes, the next career step means to move abroad. In case your prospective employer offers no relocation budget for your move, you will have some expenses right in the beginning: home search with realtor fee, deposit, first rent, some flights to orient yourself in your new environment etc…
Of course you want to save mone on every turn. For example, by even transporting your household yourself abroad.
But beware! Once you enter or leave the Schengen Area or the European Union with your private household items, a customs clearance is due.
The preparation for the import clearance of household effects already begins (personal effects) in the country when packing your boxes.
The European customs rules provide fort he case of a move from a third country into our out of a momber state oft he European Union, under certain conditions, the exemption from import duties (customs duties effects) (Art. 3ff. tariff exemption Regulation)
Conditions for recognition of goods as personal property are:
- The must be a natural person transferring his permanent place of residence into or out oft he customs territory of the European Community.
- The main residence oft he moving person must have been at least twelve months before he moves outside the customs territory oft he European Community.
- The goods must belong tot he moving person and must have been in use at least the past 6 months in the country of the movers origin – in case of non-consumable goods.
Goods for which these non-tariff exemption from customs duties apply to are always to register for release into free circulation in writing (import customs clearance in the destination country)
In order tob e on the safe side, to obtain the personal belongings as quickly and smoothly as possible and especially import duty free to the new place of residence, a predictive and precise planning before the actual move is very important.
So the mover should enumerate consecutively all boxes before packing. As a next step, it is advisable to prepare a table of contents (A4) on the contents of each box. Thus, for relatively easily and quickly customize an entire inventory over their own belongings.
This inventory must be registered with the local customs office in charge of the exporting country.
It is recommended that this registration should be done early (at least 48 hrs) in order to avoid delays due to some physical checks.
Next up is the release into free circulation. (import customs clearance in the destination country). And right here the previously prepared inventory is worth gold. The imminent importation of the items can be registered at the relevant local customs office of the new residence before the items actually physically arrive. The customs officer receives based on the list in advance an accurate view of the goods brought. This means he can decide based on your contents if he wants to look at individual items or individual cartons in the discharge of the furniture transporter. This approach has a number of huge advantages.
- You must pass no extensive control fare on the premises of the customs office.
- The control can take place during your actual moving in.
- There is a sporadic control instead and your belongings will not be controlled.
- You can save a lot of time on entry, since it is likely that only a few things need to be looked at
- By sporadic control a much bigger part of your privacy is protected as possible to dispense with the control of boxes of intimate or sensitive content (this is at the discretion of each individual customs officers)
Contact us for more information and a list of customs clearance providers we recommend to our clients at www.moves-consulting.com