Customs warehouses, free zones and the reforms after 2014

The customs warehousing procedure

Swiss customs law allows foreign goods to remain in Switzerland without paying import duties and import VAT as long as they are placed under a suspensive procedure. Apart from transit, temporary admission and inward processing, the most important of these procedures for the distribution economy is customs warehousing, which the Customs Act of 18 March 2005 regulates in Articles 50 to 57. Article 50 defines the procedure, Article 51 its course and Article 52 the roles of the warehouse keeper (Lagerhalter) and the depositor (Einlagerer). Articles 53 and 54 govern open customs warehouses and their authorization and Article 55 warehouses for bulk goods. Article 56 deals with the goods stored, the stock records and the handling of goods, Article 57 with the removal of goods from the warehouse.¹ A separate chapter, Articles 62 to 67, governs free zones (Zollfreilager, in Italian depositi franchi doganali). Its provisions cover their definition and purpose, the warehouse keeper and depositor, authorization, storage, duration and handling, supervision and stock records, and removal.²

The open customs warehouse (offenes Zolllager, OZL) is the procedure most used by logistics companies. It is a warehouse operated by a company under an authorization from the customs administration, in which foreign goods can be stored for an unlimited or long period without duty and import VAT. The goods remain under customs supervision through the keeper's stock records, which the customs office can inspect at any time. If goods disappear, the keeper is liable for the duties. When goods leave the warehouse, they are either declared for import into Switzerland, at which point duties and VAT become payable, or re-exported under the transit procedure, at which point no Swiss duty arises. A fashion group stored Italian goods in Ticino and shipped most of them back to the European Union or to third countries. With an open customs warehouse, only the goods sold in Switzerland were ever taxed in Switzerland.³

The warehouse for bulk goods (Lager für Massengüter) is the variant used by commodity traders. The current directive of the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, in force since 1 January 2025, applies it to foreign goods stored in quantities of at least 10,000 kilograms with uniform physical characteristics, such as oils, fats, grain, coal, sand or sugar. Goods in piece form such as logs, packaged food or steel are excluded. The warehouse keeper is also the depositor, and the latest customs declaration replaces separate stock records. Preservation, sampling and sorting are permitted. The storage period is two years, extendable three times by one year to a maximum of five. Deferral of import VAT under the shifting procedure is not available for this type of warehouse.⁴

Notes

1. Customs Act (CustA), SR 631.0, Arts 50 to 57; article titles verified through the consolidated text at https://www.lexaris.de/library/tableofcontents/224392. ↩
2. CustA, Arts 62 to 67 (above). ↩
3. Federal Customs Act, SR 631.0, Art. 50 (customs warehouses) and Art. 53 (open customs warehouses: storage without time limit, keeper's responsibility for customs supervision, security), https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/6/63/631.0-50-54.html and https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/6/63/631.0-53-57.html; Customs Ordinance of 1 November 2006 (CO), SR 631.01, Arts 158 to 162 (authorization and operation of open customs warehouses), https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/6/63/631.01-158-180.html. The description of the economic effect is the author's. ↩
4. Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, Richtlinie 10-40: Zolllagerverfahren "Lager für Massengüter" (in force 1 January 2025), https://www.bazg.admin.ch/dam/de/sd-web/96boxnqA3FZY/richtlinie-10-40-de.pdf (legal bases CustA Arts 23, 50, 51, 55 and 57; CO Arts 160 and 161). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.