Amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine: Authorization for customs brokerage activities

Ukrainian customs legislation introduces one of the European practices of customs brokerage activities.

In practice, this means that the permit to conduct customs brokerage activities is replaced by authorization.

An authorization may be obtained by an enterprise that has an account number with the customs authorities (i.e., carries out operations with goods) and meets the criterion of "compliance with the requirements of the customs and tax legislation of Ukraine, as well as the absence of facts of criminal prosecution"(part 1 of Article 14 of the Customs Code of Ukraine ) and conditions 2 and 4 of the criterion "ensuring practical standards of competence or professional qualification of the responsible official of the enterprise"(paragraphs 2 and 4 of part 4 of Article 14 of theCustoms Code of Ukraineas amended by Law No. 3926-IX).

The conditions of the criterion "compliance with the requirements of the customs and tax legislation of Ukraine, as well as the absence of facts of criminal prosecution" stipulate that as of the date of submission of the application for authorization, the beneficiaries/officials of the company must not have an unspent or unexpunged criminal conviction for committing criminal offenses, and for 3+ years (the year of submission of the application for authorization and the 3 previous years) such persons have not been subject to administrative penalties for committing systematic and/or serious violations of customs rules. In addition, the company must appoint an employee responsible for customs issues (performing duties on interaction with customs authorities, monitoring compliance with the terms of authorization, informing customs authorities, etc.)

Systematic violations of customs rules are considered to be five or more violations of customs rules committed by one or more persons of the company during a calendar year. At the same time, the commission by one or more persons of two or more violations of customs rules related to the implementation of customs formalities in respect of goods, commercial vehicles during their simultaneous movement across the customs border of Ukraine within the framework of one foreign economic operation is considered to be one violation of customs rules.

Serious violations of customs rules are considered to be violations of customs rules for which an administrative penalty in the form of a fine or confiscation of goods, commercial vehicles - direct objects of violation of customs rules - is imposed, if the total amount of such fines imposed and/or the value of confiscated objects of offenses during a calendar year exceeds

• 0.5% of the total invoice value of goods transported by the company across the customs border of Ukraine or declared for the relevant year; or
• the amount determined by law for qualifying tax and duty evasion as a criminal offense for the relevant year.

Conditions 2 and 4 of the criterion "ensuring practical standards of competence or professional qualification of the responsible official of the enterprise" provide for

• the presence of an employee responsible for customs issues in the company's staff (without the requirement of minimum experience in customs formalities), and
• assignment of duties to such an employee, including interaction with customs authorities, independent control over compliance with the criteria and/or conditions for granting authorization.

Thus, neither the company nor its employee responsible for customs issues is subject to the requirement of 3 years of practical experience in customs formalities in order to obtain an authorization for customs brokerage.

It will also be easier for a company that obtains an authorization for customs brokerage to obtain AEO status or authorization for any other type of simplification, as the requirements are mutually exclusive. That is, if a company has a customs brokerage authorization, it does not need to re-confirm the conditions and criteria already verified by the customs. And vice versa: a company that has AEO status or simplification authorization does not need to re-confirm the relevant conditions and criteria to obtain authorization for customs brokerage activities.

As for the companies that currently have a customs brokerage authorization, they must obtain an authorization instead of the existing one by 19.04.2026. During the transitional period, until 18.04.2026 inclusive, the existing permit remains valid.

The legislation defines clear deadlines for obtaining an authorization for customs brokerage activities - up to 15 business days (including: 5 days for preliminary consideration of the company's application for authorization and 10 days for assessment of the company's compliance based on the self-assessment questionnaire submitted with the application).

The new Customs Code of Ukraine, which is currently being developed on the basis of the EU Customs Code and is to be adopted as one of the requirements for Ukraine's accession to the EU, will take into account the relevant approaches to customs brokerage activities based on authorization.

The current amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine are a transitional stage on the way to the implementation of the EU customs rules. At the same time, the main focus is on the preparation of the new Customs Code of Ukraine, which will be fully based on the EU Customs Code.