Is all imported goods stored in domestic bonded areas after arrival required to complete formal customs declaration procedures?
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I am operating an imported beauty and fast-moving consumer goods business. Last week, I just transported a full container of serums shipped from South Korea to the public warehouse in Shanghai Waigaoqiao Bonded Area. Previously I heard from many peers that goods entering the bonded area are classified as "inside the border but outside the customs territory", which do not need customs declaration and can be directly put into storage.
However, the warehouse operation staff notified me yesterday that high overdue declaration fines will be charged if I fail to submit materials after the statutory declaration period, leaving me completely confused now. Nearly 60% of the goods in this container will be resold to Southeast Asian markets afterwards, 30% will be cleared through customs and delivered to offline domestic beauty stores, and less than 1% of the samples will be used at the industry exhibition held inside the bonded area. I cannot figure out whether goods of different flow directions need to go through customs declaration respectively, and I am extremely afraid of being audited by the customs due to unreported declaration, which has dragged down my inventory counting progress in recent two days.
JohnYears of service：6Customer Rating：5.0
Export Tax Rebate AdvisorStart a Chat
Many practitioners mistakenly believe that the bonded area falls under the category of "inside the border but outside the customs territory"，and all goods entering the zone do not need any declaration process. This is the most common cognitive misunderstanding in the current industry. Many small and medium-sized merchants have fallen into this trap: they failed to submit declaration materials on time，resulting in overdue declaration fines calculated at 0.05% of the goods value per day. Goods overdue for more than 30 days will be disposed of through public auction by the customs in accordance with the law，causing unexpected loss of hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan of goods value.
You first need to distinguish the declaration requirements for different scenarios. For the inbound link，all goods arriving at the bonded area from overseas must be declared by submitting the Inbound Goods Record List，which falls into the scope of broad-sense customs declaration. There is no need to pay import tariff and value-added tax in advance，and submission only needs to be completed within 14 days after the manifest is transmitted，which will not occupy the working capital of the enterprise at all.
For goods transferred and circulated between different entities within the zone，it is only required to submit the verification list for special customs supervision areas to complete information record filing，with no need to repeatedly submit formal customs declaration materials. For goods directly transshipped to exit the territory，only the corresponding Outbound Goods Record List is required for release，and no domestic taxes or fees shall be levied during the whole process.
Once goods exit the bonded area and enter the domestic non-bonded area，a formal import customs declaration form must be submitted to complete the whole process including price verification and tax payment. All declaration documents for each link must be kept separately for 3 years for future inspection. Never discard or tamper with original manifests and logistics vouchers arbitrarily，so that the vast majority of compliance risks can be avoided easily.
SarahYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Foreign Exchange AdvisorStart a Chat
The filled information of the inbound record list must 100% match all fields of the original ocean bill of lading manifest, including goods name, HS code, weight, quantity, information of consignor and consignee. Any information deviation will directly trigger system document rejection. If the rejection occurs for more than 3 times after repeated modification, the relevant entity will be included in the low-credit warning pool of the customs, and all subsequent declarations of this entity will trigger manual secondary review.
For special regulated commodities such as beauty products, the electronic scanned copy of the cosmetics record certificate shall be uploaded in advance during the entry declaration link, instead of being supplemented and uploaded until the formal declaration when goods exit the zone, so as not to delay the declaration efficiency. If document rejection occurs, submit a statement of explanation in time to apply for correction, instead of directly choosing to delete the document and re-declare, to avoid generating unnecessary operation records that affect subsequent customs clearance efficiency.
AlexanderYears of service：10Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Trade AdvisorStart a Chat
The regular free storage period for public warehouses in the bonded area is 7 days, calculated from the day when the goods are unloaded into the checkpoint. After exceeding the free storage period, the warehouse will charge storage fees ranging from 1.5 yuan to 3 yuan per cubic meter per day. For goods that stay for a long time, the storage cost may even exceed the goods value itself.
You can pre-plan the distribution storage positions for goods of different flow directions: arrange the goods to be re-exported overseas in the storage positions close to the export checkpoint of the bonded area, and arrange the goods that will be cleared through customs into domestic territory later in the storage positions close to the comprehensive declaration hall, which can greatly reduce the subsequent hoisting and shifting cost. If there is a delay in manifest information transmission, you can apply to the customs in advance for a maximum of 7 days of declaration extension, which will not generate any extra fees, and will not affect the normal warehousing of goods.
DavidYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Business Development AdvisorStart a Chat
All bonded goods that have completed record filing after entering the zone can directly apply for the VAT deferral policy when making formal declaration upon exiting the zone, and there is no need to pay import value-added tax on the spot during customs clearance. The corresponding value-added tax can be deducted independently in the subsequent VAT declaration period, which greatly optimizes the cash flow occupation ratio of the enterprise.
For goods re-exported to overseas destinations, no import taxes and fees need to be paid throughout the whole process. It is only required to keep complete goods ownership transfer vouchers and payment slips of overseas purchasers. When making the final settlement of corporate income tax afterwards, the corresponding re-export income can be normally included in the cost deduction scope, and no extra input tax transfer-out operation is required. The overall tax cost is more than 40% lower than the cost of importing through general trade first and then exporting directly.
EllaYears of service：10Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Financial AdvisorStart a Chat
The receipt and payment of foreign exchange operation corresponding to bonded area goods can directly go through the cross-border settlement channel for special supervision areas, which is not restricted by the online verification of foreign exchange payment for import customs declaration forms. For the foreign exchange collection of entrepot trade, you can directly use the inbound goods record list and outbound goods record list as the authenticity vouchers of the transaction to submit to the bank for review, and no extra other customs declaration materials are required.
If you complete cross-border RMB receipt and payment through the CIPS system, you only need to mark "Bonded Area Entrepot Goods" in the remark column of the corresponding message, and the bank will not require extra supplementary documents. The settlement efficiency is 2 to 3 working days faster than the ordinary foreign exchange receipt and payment under general trade, and there will be no situation where the SWIFT message is intercepted during transmission.
RobertYears of service：6Customer Rating：5.0
Warehouse Management AdvisorStart a Chat
The goods ownership transfer agreement for goods circulated in the bonded area must clearly indicate the customs bonded supervision attribute of the goods, and agree that all compliance liabilities caused by improper subsequent operations of the transferee shall be borne by the transferee itself, so as to avoid implicating the credit rating of the original goods owner. For the samples used for exhibitions inside the bonded area, an application for temporary exit of the zone for exhibition must be submitted to the customs in advance, clarifying the use location and use cycle of the samples.
After the exhibition ends, all remaining samples must be fully transported back to the original bonded warehouse, and cannot be given to on-site visitors privately, otherwise it will be judged as selling bonded goods to domestic market without approval, which will trigger administrative penalties. The intellectual property customs record information corresponding to beauty products shall be synchronously updated to the remark column of the inbound record list, to avoid being detained upon application by the intellectual property right holder when goods enter the zone.
DanielYears of service：8Customer Rating：5.0
Legal AdvisorStart a Chat
The machine inspection process at the bonded area checkpoint will not open or dig through the containers. As long as the actual loading situation of the goods is completely consistent with the declared manifest information, the goods can be released through the checkpoint within 24 hours.
If manual inspection is selected afterwards, prepare the complete goods packing list and MSDS report in advance, and cooperate with the guidance of on-site customs officers. Beauty products do not belong to high-risk inspection categories, and the inspection duration will basically not exceed 2 hours.
If inspection and identification by the designated lab is required, confirm the inspection cycle with on-site customs officers in time. Generally, the report issuing cycle for component identification of beauty products will not exceed 7 working days, and no extra storage or overdue declaration fees will be charged during this period.
OliviaYears of service：5Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Customs AdvisorStart a Chat
For the stored beauty serums in the bonded area, constant temperature and moisture-proof packaging reinforcement treatment shall be completed in advance, and the buffer coefficient of the buffer packaging material shall be adjusted to meet the strength requirements of handling operations of the bonded warehouse, to avoid liquid leakage caused by package damage during multiple hoisting and shifting processes. The exclusive bonded supervision mark shall be printed on the package of all products in advance, marked with the prompt text "Customs Supervised Goods, No Unauthorized Exit from the Zone Permitted".
Subsequent allocation and circulation inside the zone will not require repeated opening of packages to verify goods attributes, which can greatly improve the efficiency of allocation operations. For a small amount of serums with pressure pump heads, hazardous goods classification appraisal shall be completed in advance to confirm that they do not belong to Category 3 flammable liquids, so as to avoid being blocked at the entry checkpoint.
EmilyYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Client Success AdvisorStart a Chat
For the corresponding documents of your batch of goods that some exit the zone for general trade import and some are re-exported afterwards, separate document record filing shall be conducted respectively, to ensure the full consistency of goods flow, capital flow, document flow and declaration information. When applying for export tax refund for the re-export income afterwards, you can directly submit the inbound goods record list, outbound goods record list, and purchase and sales contract, and no traditional export goods customs declaration form is required.
No letter of inquiry warning will be triggered during the system pre-declaration verification. The corresponding foreign exchange collection voucher must completely match the amount and information of the paying party in the entrepot trade contract. Third-party payment on behalf is not allowed, to avoid being judged as a doubtful business during subsequent tax refund review, which will delay the arrival of tax refund funds.
CharlotteYears of service：4Customer Rating：5.0
Currency Exchange AdvisorStart a Chat
You can optimize the existing inventory linkage strategy, place all regularly stocked beauty products in the bonded warehouse, and clear them through customs in batches according to the actual sales orders of domestic stores, instead of paying the full amount of import taxes in one lump sum in advance. The overall inventory holding cost can be reduced by around 30%.
In terms of trade terms, directly adopt FOB port of shipment clause when signing procurement contracts with overseas suppliers, and control all links of international transportation and entry declaration by the domestic party afterwards, which can further cut down the overall logistics cost. Establish independent cost precise accounting ledger for goods of different flow directions respectively, and accurately calculate the comprehensive cost under different declaration scenarios, which can form a more stable supply chain cost control model in the long run.