MCC - Self-Assessment

If a company is AEO approved this “Self Assessment” simplification will permit the company to:
bring goods into the EU without a financial declaration at import (though a security declaration will be required – ie summary declaration) the company will then submit a monthly declaration of duty liability (similar to the VAT returns currently in place) and payment of duty and VAT will be made periodically (monthly/quarterly as approved).

There are still issues to be agreed on this simplification and the actual implementing provisions (which tells us how to use this procedure) are not in place.

MCC - Centralised Clearance

"Centralised clearance" was introduced in Article 106 of the Modernised Customs Code as a possibility for importers that hold an authorisation for this purpose to both declare and pay customs duties to the customs administration of their Member State of authorisation, independent from the actual place of import and destination of goods within the EU.

However, under the present rules of the VAT directive (directive 2006/112/EC), the importers, even using centralised clearance, would still be subject to VAT obligations in each Member State of physical arrival and destination of goods.

Therefore, keeping the import VAT system unchanged would run against the simplification objective of the Modernised Customs Code and against the Commission-wide objective of easing administrative burden on businesses.

The possible solutions were analysed by VAT and customs experts in the relevant working groups of the Commission dealing with these issues.

Contributions are sought by HMRC/ EU Commission from businesses that are considering using customs centralised clearance simplification in the future. The aim of this consultation is to obtain business views on a series of solutions relating to the possible adaptations of VAT collection rules.