Compliance tool

Sizing your customs guarantees

Two guarantees, two different logics. Start with two questions: they change the calculation entirely.

Your figures never leave your browser. Everything is calculated locally, on your own machine. Nothing is sent or stored.

Before you calculate

1. Which account do you hold with the AGD&A (the Belgian customs and excise administration)?

2. Do you hold an ET 14000 authorisation?

3. Do you hold AEO status?

Which guarantee rates were granted to you?

% Special procedures: customs warehousing, processing, temporary admission… The duties are not yet due.
% Duties actually due, whose payment is deferred.
Standard rates — without AEO: 100 % in both cases. With AEO: 0 % for debts which may be incurred, 30 % for debts which have been incurred.
For transit the rates are more nuanced: refer to your own authorisation decision, and correct the figures above if your situation differs.

Reference amount — Comprehensive guarantee (CGU)

Covers debts which may be incurred for goods placed under a special procedure: customs warehousing, inward processing, temporary admission… This corresponds to Annex Ib of the CGU application.

Goods / procedure Value over the period€ Duties% Excise€ (flat) VAT% Average durationdays Amount retained
Import duties0,00 €
Excise duties0,00 €
VAT0,00 €
Total debt over the period0,00 €
Estimated reference amount 0,00 € The amount that may be due at any one time, given how long the goods stay under the procedure.

Sizing — Deferred payment guarantee (DPO)

This guarantee works as a revolving amount: it is drawn down with each declaration and replenished with each payment. Its level is not imposed on you — you set it according to your needs.

The point is not to be exact: it is never to run short. If the amount is exhausted, the declaration no longer goes through the system — your goods stay blocked until it is replenished. The risk is asymmetric: a slightly generous guarantee costs a little in bank charges, an insufficient one stops your business.
The AGD&A method The reference amount is set over ≈ 5 weeks for customs, anti-dumping and countervailing duties, and ≈ 2 weeks for excise duties, special excise duties and import VAT. These periods are deliberately longer than the deferral periods themselves — that is where the safety margin lies.
Prefer a period representative of your peak activity, not a smoothed average.
Import flow Value€ / month Duties% Excise€ / month VAT% Reference amount
Duties — 5-week basis0,00 €
VAT — 2-week basis0,00 €
Excise duties — 2-week basis0,00 €
Reference amount0,00 €
Reference amount to adopt 0,00 € Below this amount you risk having a declaration blocked at peak times.

How the calculations work

Comprehensive guarantee (CGU)

  1. Duties = value × rate
  2. VAT base = value + duties + excise (import VAT applies to a base that includes the duties)
  3. Debt = duties + excise + VAT
  4. Amount retained = debt × (average time under the procedure ÷ reference period)

That last step is the decisive one: the guarantee does not cover annual flows, but what may be due at any one time. Goods that stay an average of 30 days under a procedure, over 365 days, tie up only one twelfth of the annual debt.

Deferred payment (DPO)

Under the AGD&A method, the reference amount is set charge by charge:

  1. Your figures are brought back to a weekly basis
  2. Customs, anti-dumping and countervailing duties: × 5 weeks
  3. Excise duties, special excise duties and import VAT: × 2 weeks
  4. Reference amount = the sum of the three

These periods deliberately exceed the deferral periods — one month for duties, one week for VAT. It is that gap which absorbs swings in activity and prevents a shortfall.

Procedures covered by deferral: 01, 07, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 61, 63 and 68. Procedure 51 is possible subject to conditions.

The effect of ET 14000

Under ET 14000, import VAT is deferred to the periodic VAT return. It is not due when the customs declaration is lodged and disappears from both calculations. The difference is considerable: on a flow taxed at 21 %, VAT is often more than three quarters of the total debt.

An estimate, not an official calculation. These results are meant to help you prepare an application and size a guarantee. The CGU reference amount is fixed by the administration, which may apply other parameters. Have your figures checked before you file.

Preparing a guarantee application? We build the file, annexes included, and defend the amount adopted before the administration.

Let us discuss your situation →
TOP