Customs debt and guarantee

A customs debt on importation is incurred through the release for free circulation of goods liable to import duties or the placing of such goods under the temporary importation procedure with partial relief from import duties.

A customs debt is also incurred through unlawful introduction into the customs territory of the EU and the unlawful removal from customs supervision of the goods liable to import duties. Furthermore, a customs debt is incurred through non-fulfilment of one of the obligations which arise in respect of goods liable to import duties or from keeping the goods in question in temporary storage or from the use of the customs procedure under which the goods have been placed. Moreover, it is incurred through non-compliance with one of the conditions governing the placing of the goods under a customs procedure.

A customs debt is calculated:

• on the basis of a custom declaration in the form of a single administrative document (SAD),
• on a form for calculation of duties applicable to goods in passenger traffic , or
• on the basis of a decision issued by a competent customs authority.

Where several persons are liable for payment of one customs debt, they are jointly and severally liable for such debt.

In the below mentioned cases, a customs debt must be paid within the prescribed time limit following the communication to the debtor of the amount of duty owed:

• a customs debt calculated on the basis of an administrative decision must be paid within the time limit of ten days following the service of the decision, and
• a customs debt calculated on a customs declaration must be paid within the time limit of ten days following the release of the goods to the declarant. 

On the basis of an application, a customs debtor may be granted an authorisation for deferred payment of duties according to which the time limit for the payment of a customs debt may be extended from ten to thirty days. The application must be submitted at Celje Financial Office, where authorisations for deferred payment of duties are issued.

Repayment means the total or partial refund of duties which have been paid. Remission means either a decision to waive all or part of the amount of a customs debt or a decision to render void an entry in the accounts of all or part of an amount of duties which have not been paid.

Import duties can be repaid or remitted if it is established that when they were paid or entered in the accounts, the amount of such duties was not legally owed.

Duties can be repaid or remitted on the basis of an application submitted by the customs debtor to the financial office responsible for the calculation of the amount of duties.

A detailed description of repayment and remission of import duties with examples is given in Instructions on repayment or remission of duties  .

Refunding excess VAT as regards the importation of goods is described in Instructions on repayment of excess VAT, where VAT is pad as it was  import duty  .