Conversion process
The conversion procedure is a customs procedure with economic significance regulated in Articles 130–136 of the Customs Code (ZK) and Articles 551–552 in conjunction with Annex 76 of the Customs Code Implementing Ordinance (ZK-DVO) .
The conversion procedure requires approval in accordance with Article 85 CC. This will be issued upon application by the competent main customs office if the authorization requirements are met.
Non-Community goods can be transferred to the conversion process for the purpose of processing or processing without levying taxes or applying trade policy measures (e.g. foreign trade law or market regulation law ). Processing then takes place in a free zone or customs warehouse .
The goods obtained from the conversion are then released for free circulation . The purpose of the procedure is, on the one hand, to reduce the tax burden if the intermediate products are subject to a higher duty rate than the goods obtained from the conversion. On the other hand, this procedure can also deal with goods which, for reasons of trade policy, would not be importable, but whose transformation product is importable (e.g. retrofitting of electrical appliances in accordance with European standards).
The process sequence is as follows:
- Registration and presentation of third country goods at the competent customs office for the purpose of transferring them to the procedure
- Processing of goods in the conversion plant
- Registration and presentation of the processed products to the competent customs office to the goods a customs-approved feed
- Billing of the procedure. A previously determined rate of recovery is used to check whether all goods from third countries have absorbed the declared transformation products. The customs debt arises for differences .
If the third country goods have not been converted in due time or if other irregularities arise, the customs debt for the third country goods also arises.