Rates of customs duties. Moving goods across the border

Since the customs service of the Russian Federation provides a significant part of the fiscal revenues going to the federal budget, the state tries to maximally monitor compliance with established rules and rules for cargo clearance by all participants in foreign trade activities, including the calculation and payment of each customs duty rate. All this necessitates the presence of serious experience and specialized knowledge in the sphere of border regulation for every person who is going to cross the border with certain goods.

The main normative document, according to which the rates of customs payments are regulated, is the Customs Code of the Customs Union, the second section of which is entirely devoted to this topic.

Basic views

First of all, it should be noted that there are two main groups of payments - import and export. Each of them includes different requirements and, accordingly, rates of customs duties.

Imported

In accordance with the current TC TC such customs payments include:

• Import duties. It is a compulsory payment, which must be collected by the customs authorities when moving any goods across the border.
• VAT. Should be charged when trying to import goods into the Customs Union. It is an indirect tax, the payment of which is regulated not only by the CU, but also by the tax legislation of individual countries.
• Excises. They are levied for any import of marketable products into the territory of the Customs Union. It is an indirect tax and is regulated in the same way as VAT.
• Customs duties. Mandatory payment, which is charged by the relevant authorities for the performance of their actions, which relate to the release of goods from the territory, as well as their escort or any other actions specified by the TC or the current legislation of other CU countries. The general list of actions that can be the basis for this rate of customs duties is currently open, that is, it can be supplemented, based on the current TC TC. It can also be supplemented by starting from any separate regulatory legal acts of individual member countries of the CU.

Export

Among this group, it is worth noting the following points, which set the rates of customs duties:

• The export duty. This term is not only not specified in the legal acts of Russia, but it is not explained precisely by the rules of the Customs Union. You can determine it by analogy with the import payment.
• Customs duties. The amount of this payment can not be greater than the approximate cost of the costs incurred by the relevant authorities in the commission of any actions in relation to which the fee is established. If this rule is not complied with, then the payer has the right to write a statement on the return of the amount that was overpaid, as well as any other money. The only thing worth noting is that the application must be submitted at most three years after the payment was made.

Preferences

Different tariff preferences can be used in relation to individual goods or countries that are imported from other countries into the territory of the CU. If goods are exported from Russia, then their application is not foreseen.

In accordance with the current legislation, this list includes the following:

• List of developing countries that are users of accepted TC preferences.
• List of the least developed countries that are users of the accepted preferences of the TC.
• List of goods originating and imported from countries, and in relation to which provision is made for the provision of tariff preferences.

The origin of goods is determined in accordance with the Rules approved in the Agreement between the Governments of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia in 2008.

What do I need to know?

If we do not consider the export of goods from Russia, the base rate of the import customs duty is a value fixed in the current ETT, and it is used for any goods with which Russia is most favored in political and commercial terms. The preference rate of 75% of the base ETT applies to products that are produced in 103 different states. A complete absence of duties is provided for a certain list of preferential goods that are transported to the territory of the Russian Federation from 49 countries included in the list of least developed countries.

The maximum possible rate is 200% of the base customs tariff, and it is used in relation to the goods of those states with which Russia is not in the MFN mode, or if the product has an unidentified origin.

The current legislation also states that countries that together with Russia form a free trade zone should not pay an import customs duty if they are going to transport their own goods to the territory of the Russian Federation, and in some situations certain tariff quotas are established for certain types of marketable products .

Under the tariff quota, a measure is provided for regulating the importation of various agricultural products originating in third countries to Russia. If it is installed on a certain commodity product, import of it is paid a lowered import customs duty, but only a limited amount of this product is indicated, which can be carried at that price.

At the same time, countries that are part of the free trade zone do not have a significant influence or the ability to coordinate actions taken in relation to the established duties and other measures to regulate foreign economic activity with third countries.

Quotas

The functions of the customs authorities provide for the definition, when attempting to import, of products for which tariff quotas are set. In themselves, they are used as a measure to regulate the import of various types of agricultural goods produced in the territory of third countries to the territory of the Russian Federation, and they are introduced only for a certain period of time, extending to the list of goods approved by the Commission of the Customs Union or the Government of Russia.

Quotas can be determined in relation to certain items of goods in both value and in kind terms. Subsequently, they are distributed among all participants in foreign trade activities of the Customs Union and the Russian Federation, and then, if necessary, they can also be distributed among third countries. The allocation of these quota volumes among all participants of the RFLC is carried out in proportion to the quota used or based on the competitive system.

The current legislation regulating the basic functions of customs authorities states that the export tariff quotas are determined in full compliance with the import. They are set for a clearly specified period of time in relation to a certain list of products and in specific volumes, providing for a lower rate. When such preferences are introduced by the Government of the Russian Federation, the rates of export customs duties are reduced, and they themselves are generally taken in relation to various natural resources, such as hydrocarbons, timber and their derivatives.

It should be noted that the various benefits and preferences related to the payment of duties do not apply to compensatory, special or anti-dumping, since special types do not apply to them.

Privileges

Unlike preferences, they do not provide for a personified character and are used regardless of which particular country produced the commodity output. Tariff privileges may apply to imported goods or reduce export customs duty rates, and the issue of their provision is unconditionally related to the management of the vehicle, regardless of the specific groups of goods they are used to.

Rates and calculation procedure

In order to accurately determine the amount of payments, you need to have up-to-date and reliable information about the following:

• What are the basic rates of customs duties, duties, VAT and excises on goods that move across the border in accordance with the code indicated in its commodity nomenclature of foreign trade activities.
• How special rates work: anti-dumping, seasonal, compensatory, preferential, preferential, protective, quoted with respect to certain types of goods transported across the border.
• What are the methods and rules that determine the import and export customs value of various goods.
• What are the calculation formulas used to determine the rates of customs duties, as well as the total amounts of payments to be paid.
• Features of the current regulatory framework, in accordance with which the implementation of the above points is carried out.

Amount of duties

Import duties, which are imposed by the Moscow customs and other similar bodies, are approved in accordance with the decisions of the Council of ECE, but export duties can be established only by the Government. The first can be calculated based on the ETT - a specialized set of rates, on which import duties are determined in relation to products imported to the territory of the Customs Union from any third countries. This code is systematized in full accordance with the TN VED EEC, after which it is already used by the Moscow customs and other authorities.

Definition of export duties is carried out in accordance with the rates approved by Resolution of the Government of Russia No. 754 of 30.02.13. The total amount of the fee depends on the rates and the total cost of the goods.

Types of bets

In accordance with the current legislation, there are three main types, which may include rates of import customs duties or export - specific, ad valorem and combined. Based on this, a specific mechanism for calculating the final fee is already selected.

Specific

Can be set in euros or dollars in relation to a certain volume, weight, area or total quantity of goods. In other words, in this case the cost of customs duties is determined in accordance with the physical characteristics of the product, and the list of these characteristics is always open.

The formula, according to which the duty is calculated, looks like this: STP = SPxKVxFX, where:

• STP is the total amount of the customs duty.
• SP - the rate for each unit of calculation, expressed in foreign currency.
• KV - the rate of the selected foreign currency, which was established by the Central Bank of Russia at the time of registration of the declaration.

Ad valorem

The customs duty in Russia provides for the use of an ad valorem rate as a percentage of the cost of production, and it can differ for import and export.

The export value at the moment is determined by the current Resolution of the Government of Russia No. 191, in accordance with which the basic rules for determining the total customs value of various products exported outside the Russian Federation are defined.

The import value is established in accordance with six different methods specified in the above-mentioned Agreement of 2008, which determines the customs value of products transported on the territory of the Customs Union, and also in Chapter 8 of the TC TC.

Customs duties on goods at the ad valorem rate are calculated by the following formula:

STP = SPTC, where:

• STP is the total amount of the fee.
• JV - the established rate of the duty.
• TS - the final customs value of products.

Combined

As the name implies, the payment of customs duties at a combined rate provides a combination of the two mechanisms mentioned above. That is, a fixed fixed value is added to the ad valorem rate, after which a minimum restriction is established.

Species

Such duties may be levied by various bodies of the countries included in the CU, regardless of the standard fee specified. This includes the following:

• Special. They are more protective and are designed to protect the commodity market from excessive imports. The main principle of such fees is to determine the increased rate for a certain group of products compared with the standard.
• Anti-dumping. Used to bring the cost of imported products to their assigned level in the exporting country. Such duties are used only if this difference affects negatively the domestic production of similar products.
• Compensatory. They are used in addition to the standard ones in order to reduce the competitiveness of various imported products, which will be sold on the national market.
• Seasonal. The current legislation considers such duties in Article 6 of the Law "On Customs Tariff", which states that they are introduced for a period of not more than six months and set in order to ensure the prompt regulation of the export of products. The general list of goods, as well as the specific rates of seasonal duties on them, the calculation formulas and the procedure for payment are approved only by the Government. A characteristic feature of such fees is that they are used instead of the rates set by ETT.

The current legislation also deals with duties related to the task of using them, and they can be dictated by one circumstance: the import of goods causes serious damage or forms a threat of causing this damage to one or another branch of the national economy, which was determined in the course of the special investigation. Compensatory, special or anti-dumping duties have nothing to do with customs payments, and they are established in accordance with the decisions of the ECE Collegium.

If a person attempting to transport certain goods across the border does not pay compensation, protective and anti-dumping duties, then administrative responsibility is assumed for this. It should be noted that the current arbitration practice has many precedents, when representatives of private businesses were able to win a dispute related to the validity of the installation of certain anti-dumping measures in relation to their goods.

Understanding the current legislation and its features, you will not violate any norms due to ignorance of certain aspects, and if necessary, you can easily defend your rights on the spot or in court.