A change is coming in less than 50 days. Beginning in March, the Federal Customs Administration (FCA) will no longer send out the import documents by post. So if you still receive the assessment decisions and Bordereaux (the summary lists) in paper form, you will have to switch in due time.
The FCA has conveniently sent the import documents to the importers or forwarding agents in paper form. On 1st March 2018, a new era will begin and the obligation to send out the documents will become an obligation to acquire them. All importers must then take care to obtain the proof of the imports they have made.
Customs Deferment Account holders have the possibility to obtain the electronic documents directly from the FCA either via a web account or by connecting their software to the FCA’s systems. All importers have the further option of downloading individual documents via an access code. The freight forwarder or customs clearance agent should provide this. For companies that regularly make imports, the last possibility will likely lead to a large administrative effort.
Electronic Customs Decisions in a nutshell (PDF)
In any case, Customs Deferment Account holders should register with the FCA and use one of the first two options mentioned above. The time to registering is already a little short. Some lead-time is required since the registration requires authentication steps, amongst others. Due to security reasons, the FCA sends out the authentication details by post. If the choice falls on a software solution, some additional time needs to be reserved for the implementation steps. The work towards that should start as soon as possible.
The details are available on the homepage of the FCA. You can also find a summary of the measures in our flyer.
Talk to us if you have any questions.
