Hamburg customs
The Hamburg Customs is an authority that has existed for several centuries and controls the delivery of customs duties . In organizational terms, Hamburg customs are now part of the Federal Customs Administration .
history
Until the beginning of the 14th century, there was a land tariff in Hamburg , the Elbe - import and export tariff and the Schauenburg customs. The land duty had to be paid to the city, the Elbe import and export duty to the sovereign. From 1604 half of the Elbe import and export duty went to the city of Hamburg, from 1768 the entire amount. After a tower was built on Neuwerk , a so-called "work tariff" was levied. From the 16th century, a barrel and beacon duty had to be paid to finance special things.
When the Hamburg Admiralty was introduced , the admiralty customs and convoy money were added. For exports to Portugal , Spain , Italy , the Canaries and the West Indies , 1 % of the value of the goods had to be paid , for exports to France , England and Russia 0.5% of the value of the goods. Depending on the type of survey, the taxes were called land, Elbe, or works, men’s, ton, Båken or citizens’s tariffs. In 1621 there was a customs regulation in Hamburg for the first time. From 1727, no more taxes had to be paid to the city for goods in transit, with the exception of wood, grain, wine , brandy and vinegar . From 1777 only customs duties had to be paid for transported wood. Further exemptions were added later.
Until 1787, two delivery ships that sailed the Elbe and were subordinate to the Admiralty controlled the customs duties. There were also visitors at the city gates and barriers. In 1787 the city got a customs yacht. After the French era in Hamburg, there was only one tax from 1814: 1.5% of the value of the goods had to be paid for goods that arrived or left Hamburg by sea and were transported via the Hanseatic city by ship or overland. When goods are transported overland, the tax was 0.5%.
In 1814 the newly established Customs and Accise Deputation took over control of Hamburg's customs system. According to the customs regulations of 1839, 0.5% of the value of the goods had to be paid as a tax for goods that reached Hamburg. For goods that left the city, 0.125% of the value of the goods had to be paid. No taxes had to be paid for goods in transit. In 1868 the city joined the German Customs Union . In order to ensure traffic in the Port of Hamburg , the customs connection to the German Reich did not take place until 1888 after the regulations on the free port of 1881 had been implemented.
Until the customs connection in 1888, the customs system was under a Prussian provincial tax office based in Altona . In Hamburg there was a customs office of the German Customs Union, which had been entitled "Imperial Main Customs Office" since 1873 and supervised the customs clearance points. With the customs connection, a General Customs Directorate subordinate to the Hamburg Senate took on these tasks. In 1891 the administrative department for customs was created, and in 1896 the Senate Commission for customs.
From 1919 the German Reich raised customs duties and consumption taxes. The General Customs Directorate in Hamburg thus became part of the Reich Finance Administration .
Current organization
Today it concerns offices of the Federal Customs Administration (customs investigation office and main customs offices in the port, the main customs office Hamburg-Jonas , the main customs office Hamburg-Stadt and a main customs office at Hamburg airport ). In 2009, customs employed 1,938 people. Employees who search ships as part of the water customs service are considered the "black gang".
Since 1996 there has been a two-beam X-ray system at the customs crossing in Waltershof , with the help of which containers and trucks can be checked (so-called container inspection system, CPA). When it went into operation, it was the first system of its kind in the world at the time. By 2016, 1.5 billion untaxed cigarettes, 2,700 weapons and ammunition, 38 tons of marijuana, 13.2 hashish and 4.6 tons of cocaine had been seized with the help of the CPA.
In July 2019, during a routine inspection in the port of Hamburg, four and a half tons of cocaine , which has a street sales value of almost one billion euros, was discovered in a container addressed to Antwerp . It is the largest single seizure of cocaine in German customs history.
The Hamburg customs in the film
From 1982 to 1996, the German television series Schwarz Rot Gold addressed 18 episodes of white-collar crime that were uncovered by employees of the Hamburg customs investigation team.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt : Customs . In: Franklin Kopitzsch , Daniel Tilgner (Ed.): Hamburg Lexikon. 4th, updated and expanded special edition. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8319-0373-3 , p. 771.
- ^ Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt: Customs . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Daniel Tilgner (Ed.): Hamburg Lexikon. 4th, updated and expanded special edition. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8319-0373-3 , pp. 771-772.
- ^ A b Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt: Customs . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Daniel Tilgner (Ed.): Hamburg Lexikon. 4th, updated and expanded special edition. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8319-0373-3 , p. 772.
- ^ Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt: Customs . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Daniel Tilgner (Ed.): Hamburg Lexikon. 4th, updated and expanded special edition. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8319-0373-3 , pp. 772-773.
- ^ Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt: Customs . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Daniel Tilgner (Ed.): Hamburg Lexikon. 4th, updated and expanded special edition. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8319-0373-3 , p. 773.
- ↑ Announcement on the 20th anniversary of the container testing system on the website www.hafen-hamburg.de (accessed on August 3, 2019).
- ↑ HZA-HH: Customs in Hamburg finds 4.5 tons of cocaine / Largest single amount ever seized in Germany discovered on a container ship. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .