Am I banned from flying from Hamburg Airport for not paying custom duties?

score:8

Accepted answer

You are most certainly not banned from flying into Hamburg airport specifically; if anything, you are banned from entering Germany as a whole. However, the relevant law to determine an entry ban or a rejection, the Aufenthaltsgesetz (law concerning the presence in the Federal Republic, rough translation), names only one reason for an entry ban (assuming your documents are in order): namely previously being removed from Germany due to certain crimes. Not paying customs duties is not listed, it would require some kind of additional court conviction.

However, you are most likely still required to pay the customs duties you owe and interest and fees may have been added since your original infraction. How this is handled may or may not depend on the mood of the customs officer handling your case on your next entry into Germany and there may or may not be a flag popping up on the screen of the immigration officer when they scan your passport. So I would expect you to be charged when you return.

For the record, I would assume that customs does not have access to any type of immigration ban lists. This is because there are two different agencies in Germany: customs (Zoll or Bundeszollverwaltung in the long form) which handles goods inspections and the federal police (Bundespolizei, formerly Bundesgrenzschutz) which performs immigration inspections; quite unlike the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) which performs both duties. I strongly expect German customs to have no access whatsoever to the databases of the federal police except where it explicitly concerns their jobs.

Further answers may be able to provide additional elaboration.

Upvote:2

The German term is Karton or Stange, which is 10 packets.

The text implies that you gave your Bank information and that the dutch tax office would book it from your account if no payment arrived.

Generally older Account numbers are the base of the iban number, with an added country and bank information. So the Dutch tax office will know how to book it if they truly wanted to.

If it has not been done by now, it may have been 'lost' somewhere inside/inbetween the (very deep) realms of the corresponding buroracicies, so either it will never turn up or it will suddenly turn up in 10 years.

Not paying a customs duty is not a crime (Verbrechen: 12 minimal months jail without suspension or money fine), but a misdemeanor (Vergehen) .

Strafgesetzbuch (StGB)

  • § 12(1) Verbrechen
    • minimal punishment defined as 1 year
    • French equivalent: crime
  • § 12(2) Vergehen
    • minimal punishment less than 1 year or fine
    • French equivalent: drélit
  • § 56(1) Bewährungstrafe
    • conviction of not more than 1 year

Note: Durring my (Reserve) Police training, I remember it so that if a suspension (Bewährungsstrafe) was definded inmn the StGB, it was also considered a Vergehen.

Looking this up now, I could not find a conformation for such a claim.

Misdemeanor (US law) seems to be definded as 1 year or less

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misdemeanor--

It is such small fee, that in general such things are forgotten or are determined not worth the effort (Verhältnismäßigkeit der Mittel).

If you are very unlucky a bored Official, driven crazy by his over eager apprentice says : 'work through that dusty pile of unfinished offenses'. Then, of course, you are sunk since the apprentice will wish to prove himself.

It is possible that after sending it to the Dutch, it was promply forgotten by German customs and 'lost' by the Dutch, since for them there is no gain.

Don't let it bother you, sleeping well is more important than worrying about this affair.

Upvote:2

For future reference, you can check allowances at www.zoll.de.

In general there will be no criminal prosecution for smuggling if it is "accidental" and the duties on your goods would've been less than 250 EUR (§32 ZollVG). In that case you'll basically be fined by paying up to double the normal duties.

Theoretically you could be banned for smuggling or other crimes, but this will only happen if you're a professional smuggler and/or repeat offender. Also, the ban will include immediate removal from the country, and you would certainly know if that happened to you.

So, you are almost certainly not banned from entering Germany. You technically still owe the fine, though. It is highly unlikely that anybody even cared, though.

As has been said, the customes inspection (Zoll) and immigration (Bundespolizei) are different entities, and it is highly unlikely that the customs offices would go to the trouble of contacting immigrations over a missing 70-something Euros.

Thus, it's unlikely that you'll be flagged at immigration. If you are inspected by the customs office again (very rare on intra-EU flights), there is a chance that the unpaid fine could pop up - in which case they'd ask you to pay again. Also, if they catch you smuggling again, they're almost certain to check your history in more detail.

The most likely scenario is that they're not keeping track of the whole thing. Also, if you're arriving from the Netherlands, you won't go through immigration in the first place and customs very rarely checks travelers on intra-EU flights.

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