Classification of goods during customs declaration is not as simple as it might seem! Opinion of managing partner Elena Legashova.

When declaring customs, the declarant declares the goods independently. However, the customs authority may itself classify goods if it has identified their incorrect classification both before and after the release of goods.

Over the 9 months of this year, the North-West Customs Administration (NWCU) made 4.45 thousand decisions on reclassification of the code of the commodity nomenclature of foreign economic activity of the Eurasian Economic Union. This change led to additional payments to the business of 721.15 million rubles.

What is associated with the large volume of adjustments and what is the judicial practice in disputes related to the reclassification of goods is discussed in the article by Business Petersburg, “In the North-West, customs officers charged more than 700 million rubles to businesses.”

Managing partner Elena Legashova, drawing on her many years of experience in the field of foreign economic activity, gave advice regarding challenging the actions of customs: “You can challenge a decision on the classification of goods made by the customs authority as part of pre-release or post-release control in a higher customs authority or in court. At the same time, the administrative appeal procedure is not mandatory; the choice is still up to the declarant.”

The full text of the article can be found at https://www.dp.ru