What can Douane Aangifte Management System software offer your firm?

From 2023, traders importing goods to the Netherlands will be required to use a new customs system in order to make declarations to the country's authorities. This is known as the Douane Aangifte Management Systeem (Customs Declaration Management System in English), or DMS.

It replaces several older systems, primarily the Aangiftesysteem (AGS) solution, including the Venue e-commerce filing system and G(S)PA for periodic declarations.

The new tool will require many existing traders to revise their processes to ensure compliance with the new regime. Businesses may therefore benefit from specialized customs software that can integrate directly with the platform and streamline the process.

DMS aims to bring the Netherlands in line with European Union requirements for a standardized legal framework for customs rules and procedures. In particular, it looks to meet a Union CustomsCode (UCC) mandate that all customs declarations be exchanged electronically.

The introduction of DMS includes several new data elements that will need to be included in order to file a complete declaration. As well as providing more information and visibility to authorities, the system is also intended to be more robust and user-friendly.

The DMS system consists of two phases, DMS 4.0, used by most importers, and DMS 4.1, which covers G(S)PA declarations and filings for authorization for storage in a customs warehouse, inward processing, or temporary imports.

The migration from AGS to DMS was originally scheduled to be completed by 2022, but this was delayed due to implementation issues. However, all users importing goods into the Netherlands should be prepared to migrate to the new system by the end of 2023, if they have not already done so.

Declarants who have not yet migrated to the new DMS 4.0 platform will be able to continue to file declarations in AGS until 30th November 2023 at the latest. Meanwhile, the timeline for transitioning to DMS 4.1 for application holders has also changed, from an original deadline of 1st  July 2023 to 31st December 2023.

In addition to bringing the Netherlands' customs system in line with the wider EU, DMS promises to bring a range of benefits that will make the filing of customs declarations easier and more streamlined. Among these are the following:

• Faster feedback: DMS includes the ability for traders to gain real-time insight into the customs process, with instant checks that can confirm whether all the necessary information has been included. This aims to make it easy to monitor processes and deliver fast, accurate information.
• Reduced chance of errors: The system is able to automatically detect when errors have been made in a filing and will not proceed until any erroneous fields have been amended, reducing the chances of delays occurring due to incorrectly submitted details.
• More information: Among the new fields that traders will be required to fill out when making a declaration are commodity codes, values and country of origin and items present per container number. This requires more detail from the shipper, but offers more visibility into imports.
• Improved resilience: The older AGS solution was a sensitive application that was prone to outages and disruption. DMS promises to be a much more robust system. As it consists of a single application with no external connections, which all shippers are using, this should help reduce the risk of downtime.

The new technology tool may represent a significant change for many shippers, but the use of a comprehensive customs management software solution can make life much easier for importers and exporters by streamlining and automating the process while ensuring that all required compliance steps are completed and essential steps such as Intrastat reporting are conducted easily.

Tools such as MIC-CUST's Global Trade Management software integrate directly with electronic self-filing solutions around the world, offering a single, easy-to-use dashboard that can provide full visibility into the entire customs filing process, including for new systems such as DMS.

As a single global solution, this also means users do not have to make manual calculations on a country-by-country basis. Importers and exporters also benefit from a solution that is always being updated to respond to constantly evolving customs regimes around the world.

The tools also provide accurate results for areas such as rules of origin requirements and preferential goods calculations, taking into account free trade agreement rules to ensure users are always paying the correct amount of tax.

All filings for ISF must be made electronically, as there is no provision for paper alternatives. While importers are permitted to use a customs broker to complete the actual process, they may also self-file, which can be a cheaper option. To do this, they will need an account with CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment Portal (ACE) and approved customs filing software that can interface with the platform.