Why bonded warehouse matters to a first-time founder
Duty on imported goods can be due when the goods arrive, even if they will sit for months or leave the country again. A bonded warehouse keeps those goods under customs control and suspends that duty in the meantime. Cash stays in the business until the goods are released to the local market. Use an ordinary warehouse and that suspension may never start.
Examples of bonded warehouse
An importer in Rotterdam stores electronics worth EUR 500,000 in a customs bonded warehouse. No import duty is paid while they remain there. Two months later, EUR 200,000 of the goods are released into the Netherlands and duty is assessed on that release. The rest are re-exported, and that duty is not collected. Customs relies on the warehouse records, not on a private padlock.
Common misunderstanding
A lock-up is not a bonded warehouse. The site has to be authorised, and the goods stay under customs control. Duty is suspended, not cancelled, for goods that later enter the local market. Taking stock out without the customs release is evasion, not a cash-flow tactic. Warehouses for alcohol or tobacco excise follow their own rules.
When to use it
Use one when goods will wait before local sale, or may be re-exported, and the duty deferred is worth the storage cost. Confirm the authorisation, which taxes can be suspended, and how release works. Goods already in free circulation are past the point where bonding helps.