What it is and who files it
The export declaration is the customs declaration, filed on what used to be the Single Administrative Document. On an export it is filed by the exporter — you — or by a representative acting for you, which is almost always the customs broker your forwarder puts in place.
Somebody else filing it does not change whose responsibility it is. You supply the data: tariff heading, value, weight, procedure, destination. If the code is wrong or the value does not match the invoice, the exporter answers for it, not whoever typed it in.
It is filed electronically and customs responds by assigning a control channel. Green: proceed. Orange: documentary check. Red: physical inspection. The channel is not chosen and not negotiated; what you can influence is whether an orange resolves in hours instead of days, by having coherent paperwork from the start.
The data you supply
The declaration has dozens of boxes, but these are the ones that come from your documentation and that you answer for.
- Exporter and EORI
- Your company and its activated EORI number.Southern Oils Ltd — ESB12345678
- Consignee
- The buyer or consignee in the destination country.Nordic Foods AB, Sweden
- Customs procedure
- Permanent export, temporary export, re-export or processing. It changes all subsequent treatment.1000 — permanent export
- Tariff heading
- The code for the goods. Measures, prohibitions and licences hang off it.1509 20 00
- Customs value
- The value of the goods for customs purposes, coherent with the invoice and the declared Incoterm.23,280.00 EUR
- Country of destination and of origin
- Where it goes and where it is from. Neither has to match where it leaves from.Destination SE · origin ES
- Gross weight and packages
- The same as on the packing list and on the transport document.3,912 kg · 8 packages
- Accompanying documents
- Invoice, packing list, licences, certificates and proof of origin, each with its reference.N380 FC-2026-0312
The paper you have to keep
Once the declaration is accepted, customs grants release and the goods can leave. When they actually leave the customs territory of the Union, the customs office of exit confirms it and the exit confirmation is issued, tied to the MRN of the declaration.
That is the document that matters afterwards. It is the proof that the export was completed, and it is what justifies your invoice carrying no VAT. In an inspection, without that proof the sale is treated as domestic and you end up paying the VAT, with a surcharge.
It does not arrive on its own: you have to ask the forwarder or the customs broker for it, and it is worth doing so in writing and filing it in the shipment folder the same month.
What the customs broker asks for
- Commercial invoice with Incoterm, currency and value
- Packing list with coherent packages and weights
- Tariff heading and country of origin for each line
- Your activated EORI
- Licences or certificates if the heading requires them
- Proof of preferential origin, if your customer is going to use it
- Transport details: vehicle plate, container or flight number
What triggers an orange channel
- A declared value that does not match the invoiceIt is the first automatic check. A mismatch, even one caused by the freight breakdown, opens a documentary review.
- A declaration weight different from the transport document’sThe systems cross-check both figures. The difference reads as an inaccurate declaration.
- A heading that does not correspond to the descriptionIf the invoice description does not fit the code, customs asks for explanations and the goods wait.
- Not retrieving the exit confirmationIt is the mistake you do not see until the inspection, two years later, when there is nobody left to ask for it.