Banking & Practical

Bonded and Customs Warehousing: How Duty Deferral Works

Updated: 19 August 2026 Holdwise editorial team Customs warehouse Bonded Duties

In a customs warehouse, you keep goods in the Netherlands while they are legally still outside the EU. Duties and import VAT are suspended until you release the goods. If you export the goods again, those goods are free of duties and import VAT. For some traders, the savings are large. For others, it is extra work with little benefit. At Holdwise, we keep this answer up to date and change it when the rules change.

How it works

Goods go into the warehouse under customs supervision with duties and import VAT suspended. They fall due when you release the goods into the EU market, over the quantity you release at that moment. For the VAT, licence holders use article 23: the import VAT deferment licence. Re-export to a country outside the EU means you pay zero EU duties on those goods. You may store them for a long period. What counts is that your stock records stay accurate.

Who benefits

Three groups benefit. Re-export traders ship goods worldwide through Rotterdam and are free of duty on the goods they ship out of the EU again. Importers of goods with high duties pay the duty for each release, so the payments are spread over the year. Traders with an open destination decide after arrival whether they sell the goods inside or outside the EU. For goods with low duties that are meant for the EU anyway, you gain little from a warehouse, because article 23 is enough.

A company outside the EU can use these rules through a Dutch partner. See fiscal representation for non-EU importers for what that partner does and how the costs are built up. There you also read when your own Dutch company is the better option.

How to get access

There are two ways. You can rent space in a licensed public customs warehouse, which is what logistics providers offer as standard and is usually usable within days. You can also apply for your own authorisation for your own premises, with customs-approved records and security, which suits a larger operation. The rest is the same either way: an EORI number, a VAT position and documented shipments. See the customs ID and fiscal representation for traders established outside the Netherlands.

Want to pay duty only when your goods go to an EU buyer? See customs warehousing in the Netherlands.

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Frequently asked questions

Can goods be processed while in the warehouse? +

Yes, for normal handling such as repacking, sorting and labelling. For real manufacturing, you need the inward-processing arrangement. It has its own authorisation, and the duties are suspended in the same way.

Warehouse or article 23: which do I need? +

With article 23, you pay the VAT on goods that enter the EU through your VAT return. In a warehouse, duties and VAT are suspended for goods that may end up outside the EU. If your shipments are meant for the EU, the licence is enough. If you ship goods worldwide or pay high duties, add the warehouse.

When was this last checked? +

Reviewed 19 August 2026. The union customs rules for warehousing change little.

Sources Belastingdienst · KVK · wetten.overheid.nl Last updated: 19 August 2026