Shipments to and from Åland
Important to keep in mind
- The transport company's responsibility: the carrier must submit the notification of arrival of goods.
- The importer's responsibility: submit the customs declaration (national tax border declaration) to Finnish Customs and submit the VAT return to the Finnish Tax Administration.
Exception to the tax border declaration:
- If a seller with a tax border number sells to private individuals.
Notification of arrival of goods
When your goods are transported by Åland Post, we notify Finnish Customs that your goods have arrived. This is required for us to be able to release your goods coming from the rest of Finland or another EU country.
Shipments from third countries must always be cleared through customs before they can be delivered to the recipient. When your shipment has arrived at Åland Post, you will receive a notification from us by email or letter.
Our notification to Finnish Customs and the information in the notification you receive from us are based on the electronic advance information we have received from our partners. That is why it is important that you check that the details of the sender/exporter and recipient/importer are correct before customs clearance.
Declaration of domestic shipments
Incoming shipments
When Åland Post has notified Finnish Customs of the arrival of your goods, you need to declare them according to Finnish Customs' instructions for periodic customs clearance: VAT-registered importers: declaring in two steps (tulli.fi). The declaration must be made no later than the last day of the month following the month of import.
If you have authorised us to handle your customs clearance, upload the documents you want us to use for customs clearance in the Customs clearances service in the Customer Portal. Read more about how to give Åland Post customs clearance assignments and how to become a contract customer.
Outgoing shipments
All shipments that businesses send from Åland to a VAT-registered business in the rest of Finland must be cleared through customs in the Finnish Customs system.
Åland Post submits a notification of arrival for your goods to Finnish Customs before they leave Åland. We also send an email to the sender/exporter when the goods have left Åland.
As the exporter, you can choose to handle customs clearance on behalf of the importer as their representative. If you act as the importer's representative, remember that you are responsible for making sure the importer has access to all customs clearance documents. Read more about goods traffic between Åland and the rest of Finland on the Finnish Customs website