In Germany the customs declaration is a tax declaration within the meaning of the fiscal code and customs regulations. The customs declaration for the export of goods to countries outside of the EU no longer uses paper forms, which have been replaced by the electronic declaration in the NCTS custom system (ATLAS shipping).

• The export procedure can either be implemented online using the Internet export declaration (IAA-Plus) or by participation in the IT procedure ATLAS export/AES as well as verbally (goods valued below €1000).

• The submission of the customs declaration to the responsible customs office is regarded as an application for the implementation of customs processing.
• An export declaration must be submitted for every export of goods with an invoice value of over €1000 to a country outside of the EU.