Customs Act 1901

An import declaration is a communication to the Department in accordance with this section of information about:

goods to which section 68 applies; or

warehoused goods;

An import declaration can be communicated by document or electronically.

A documentary import declaration must be communicated to the Department:

by giving or sending it to an officer doing duty in relation to import declarations at the place at which the goods are to be delivered for home consumption; or

by leaving it at a place:

that has been allocated for lodgement of import declarations by notice published on the Department’s website; and

that is where the goods are to be delivered for home consumption.

If the information communicated to the Department in an import declaration relating to goods adequately identifies any permission (however it is described) that has been given for the importation of those goods, the identification of the permission in that information is taken, for the purposes of any law of the Commonwealth (including this Act), to be the production of the permission to an officer.

However, subsection (5) does not affect any power of an officer, under this Act, to require the production of a permission referred to in that subsection.

If:

an import declaration is, or is taken under section 71L to have been, communicated to the Department; and

before the time when the declaration is, or is so taken to have been, communicated to the Department, the goods to which the declaration relates:

have been imported; or

for goods carried on board a ship or aircraft—have been brought to the first port or airport in Australia at which any goods are to be discharged; or

for goods that are a ship or aircraft and that are not carried on board a ship or aircraft—have arrived at a port or airport in Australia;

If:

an import declaration is, or is taken under section 71L to have been, communicated to the Department; and

at the time when the declaration is, or is so taken to have been, communicated to the Department, the goods to which the declaration relates:

for goods carried on board a ship or aircraft—have not been brought to the first port or airport in Australia at which any goods are to be discharged; or

for goods that are a ship or aircraft and that are not carried on board a ship or aircraft—have not arrived at a port or airport in Australia;