Invoice declaration
Also known as: origin declaration, statement on origin
An invoice declaration is the origin statement the exporter puts on the invoice to claim preference. On its own it is not conclusive proof. Only the manufacturer can actually demonstrate origin.
What is an invoice declaration?
The invoice declaration is a standard sentence on the commercial invoice in which the exporter declares that the goods have the preferential origin of the agreement concerned. Under newer agreements the same document is called a statement on origin, issued by a registered exporter in REX. It replaces the EUR.1 certificate on many consignments. The EUR.1 is stamped by the customs of the country of export. The invoice declaration is put on by the exporter. That saves a desk, and shifts the liability to the text on the invoice. The declaration is only valid if the wording is right, if the exporter is authorised to make it, and if the goods materially meet the origin rules of that agreement. A sentence on letterhead is not enough. Copy the sentence from the agreement, not from an old invoice of another country. A declaration under the wrong agreement is not proof, even if every word breathes origin. The agreement is the source, the invoice is the carrier.
When may you use an invoice declaration instead of a EUR.1?
Under most agreements a non-registered exporter may put the declaration on the invoice up to a threshold amount, in many cases six thousand euro. Above that a EUR.1 is needed, or registration as exporter in REX, after which the statement may go on the invoice without limit. That threshold is not a free pass. Even under the threshold the goods must meet the list rules of the agreement. The customs of import can check origin afterwards and recover from the importer. REX is the registration of the exporter. The number belongs on the declaration. A statement without a REX number, or with a number that does not exist, is not valid proof. The rate then falls back to the third-country rate. Register the exporter in REX before the volume goes over the threshold, not after. A consignment above the threshold without REX and without EUR.1 is an IMA at the third-country rate, which the buyer had not agreed.
Why is the invoice declaration not conclusive proof?
Because origin is a fact in the chain, not a sentence on an invoice. Only the manufacturer knows which materials were used and which working was the last substantial one. A trader who resells cannot pull that knowledge out of the air. The invoice declaration is the document the importer presents with the declaration. The reasoning behind it is the supplier declarations, the bills of materials, the production records. Without that layer the declaration is a claim, not proof. At a check afterwards Customs asks for that layer, or has the customs of export do so. If origin turns out to be wrong, recovery is against the importer who claimed the preferential rate, even if the supplier put the sentence on the invoice. Ask for that reasoning at the first delivery, not at the first check. A manufacturer who has to reconstruct the bill of materials three years later supplies a statement Customs will not accept. The papers of then are the proof, not the memory.
What must be on the declaration?
The prescribed text of the agreement, the name and signature or the digital equivalent of the exporter, the date, and under REX the registration number. Free rewording makes the document invalid, even if the intention is clear. The declaration must be available at the moment of filing, or be sent on within the time limit. Declaring with preference without a document, in the hope that it will still come, is a recovery with interest if the document stays away. The goods on the invoice must be the same as on the declaration. A statement about another consignment, another invoice line or another origin than the one declared is not proof for this IMA. Put the declaration on the invoice of this consignment, not on a periodic settlement. Customs matches document and IMA. A monthly invoice with one sentence over all consignments does not cover Tuesday's IMA by itself.
How does the invoice declaration relate to the preference code?
On the import declaration you claim preference with a preference code and a document code. The invoice declaration is the document behind those codes. Code and document must belong to the same agreement. A preference code for an agreement with South Korea plus an invoice declaration under the Canadian agreement is internally contradictory. DMS can let that through if the codes exist. Customs catches it at a check. Without a valid document the third-country rate applies, even if the product would materially be entitled. The right exists only once the proof is there, not once the origin is right in substance. Make code, agreement and document one master data item per article. The declarant then does not pick a code from a list. He draws the set that belongs to the article. That is the only way not to mix up Korea and Canada on a busy day.
How do you keep invoice declarations manageable?
Ask for supplier declarations at purchase, not only at a check. A long-term supplier declaration covers a period of at most two years and is the basis on which the exporter may put an invoice declaration himself. Record per article under which agreement there is preferential origin, on which rule, and which document you use for it. Without that record every claim on the IMA is an assumption. Check at a change of raw material or supplier whether origin still stands. A fabric from outside the agreement can let preference lapse without the end product looking different. You notice that at a recovery, years later. A change of fabric, of factory or of country of last working is a new origin judgment. Fix that judgment again before the next IMA claims preference. The old declaration does not cover the new chain.