The Binding Tariff Information (ITV) is provided for and governed by the EU Regulation n.952/2013 (Union Customs Code), by the EU delegated regulation n.2446/2015 (RD), by the transitional EU delegated regulation n.341/2016 (RDT), the EU Implementing Regulation n.2447/2015 (RE) and the administrative guidelines on the management of the BTI system (see BTI Guidelines).

These are administrative decisions of Union significance on the application of customs legislation, by means of which, at the request of the economic operators concerned, the customs authorities of the Member States assign the customs classification to a given commodity with the assignment of the relative Combined Nomenclature code. (NC) or Taric.

These decisions have full legal effect throughout the Union territory and:

  • bind all European Union customs authorities to recognize the holder specified in the BTI the tariff code indicated for a specific commodity, on the occasion of the completion of the import and export operations carried out after the adoption of the decision;
  • bind the holder of the decision to use the BTI itself (starting from the date on which they receive the notification on the GTP portal), which must be mentioned in box 44 of the SAD by indicating the code C626 + identification number BTI.

The actual use of BTI by operators is constantly monitored by the services of the European Commission

BTIs must refer to a truly envisaged import or export commercial operation and to a single type of goods (goods that have similar characteristics whose distinction is completely irrelevant for the purposes of their customs classification are considered as a single type of goods).
BTIs are issued by the Customs Authority free of charge (without prejudice to the right to charge the applicant for the costs necessary for chemical analyzes or appraisals on the goods subject to the BTI or for the return of the samples presented in support of the application)

For further information consult the TAXUD website

How to obtain an I.T.V.

BTIs can be requested by a commercial operator, or his representative, from the competent customs authority of the Member State in which the applicant is established or in which this information is to be used. An economic operator established outside the EU territory can request a BTI from the customs authority of the Member State in which they obtained the EORI code.

The owner is the person in whose name the binding information is issued and is the one who must use the BTI on the occasion of the customs clearance of the goods described in the BTI itself. The applicant, who is the holder of the decision, must indicate his EORI number.

The BTIs are issued as soon as possible and in all cases, within 120 days from the date of acceptance of the application or, from the moment in which all the elements useful for reaching the decision are made available to the customs authorities; in this case the term can be extended up to a further 30 days.

Submission of the Application

BTI (or the renewal of BTI that is about to expire) must be requested by accessing the General Trader Portal via the following link: https://customs.ec.europa.eu/gtp/

To access the portal, the economic operator must be in possession of a valid EORI code, credentials for access to digital services available on the National Portal (PUDM - Customs and Monopoly Single Portal) and authorizations for EU services, to be requested in advance through the Single Authorization Model (MAU) according to their operational needs.

It is preferable that the application and the attached documentation are drawn up in Italian, as customs administration may request that they provide the translation or the administration may charge for the relevant costs of translating the document. If the applicant fails to provide the requested translation or does not instruct the customs administration to provide it, the BTI application may be rejected.

All the procedural stages of issuing the BTI, (acceptance/denial of the application, any request for information, issuing of the BTI decision), the management phases of these decisions (the right to be heard, termination of validity, revocation, cancellation, extended use) and related notifications will take place via the Trader Portal.

It should be noted that once expired, the BTI can no longer be requested by filling in field 5 of the application dedicated exclusively to the renewal of BTI which is still valid. It is advisable, for all purposes, to request the renewal of a BTI at least 150 days before its expiration to avoid a break in continuity between the old and the new BTI.

After submitting the application on the Trader Portal, the trader will receive confirmation of receipt of the same with the identification number ITV (e.g. 2020-0001V-278100) within 7 days, and, subsequently, confirmation of receipt will be notified formal acceptance if the conditions for the acceptance of such application are met within 30 days.

Any samples needed to issue the BTI will be sent to the Tariff and Classification Office, Via M. Carucci 71 - 00143 Rome, referring to the registration number of the application generated by the system.

Accedi al Database della Commissione Europea per le I.T.V.

Help Desk

The Agency has set up a help desk service that answers technical and legal-procedural queries for questions and for the management of ITV decisions.

The user (economic operator or customs staff) sends the request for assistance to the following e-mail address adm.helpdesk.eu@adm.gov.it  specifying in the subject the nature of the problem as indicated below:

  • [IT][ITV][GTP]Description of object for technical questions relating to the GTP component;
  • [IT][ITV][ALTRO]Object description for technical questions not included in the previous point;
  • [GP][ITV]Description of object for legal procedural questions relating to BTI.

It is not possible to access the GTP portal using the Internet Explorer browser.