The questions people ask most often about UK import duty, VAT and customs charges.
Not if the gift is worth £39 or less — those arrive free of both customs duty and import VAT. Between £39 and £135 there is no duty but 20% import VAT applies. Between £135 and £630 a flat 2.5% duty applies plus VAT, and above £630 normal duty rates apply.
To count as a gift it must be sent by one private individual to another for a personal occasion, with nothing paid or reimbursed by the recipient, and declared as a gift on the customs form.
£135 is the value of goods below which no customs duty is charged on parcels arriving in the UK. It covers the goods alone, excluding shipping and insurance.
Below £135, overseas sellers are generally expected to charge UK VAT at checkout instead, which is why small orders often arrive with nothing to pay.
When duty or VAT is owed, the carrier usually pays HMRC first so your parcel is not delayed, then recovers the money from you along with a fee for handling the customs paperwork. Fees are commonly around £8 to £15 depending on the carrier.
It is not a tax and does not go to the Government, which is why a parcel owing only a few pounds of VAT can still arrive with a much larger bill.
Yes, potentially. Since the UK left the EU single market, goods from the EU pass through customs like those from anywhere else. Customs duty is often 0% under the UK–EU trade agreement, but only where the goods genuinely originate in the EU rather than merely being shipped from there. Import VAT can still apply on consignments above £135.
Yes. Import VAT is charged on the value of the goods plus shipping and insurance, plus any customs duty — so postage is taxed twice over, in effect. Our calculator has an optional shipping field; if you leave it blank the estimate will come out lower than the real bill.
The £135 threshold works differently: it is tested against the goods alone, excluding postage.
You can usually reclaim the customs duty and import VAT from HMRC if you return goods you have paid charges on, but not the courier's handling fee. The claim is not automatic — you have to make it yourself, and you will need evidence of the return.
Yes. Buying used goods from a private seller abroad does not exempt them from duty or VAT. Charges are based on the value of the item, and deliberately understating that value on a customs form is an offence.
No — what matters is the country of origin, meaning where the goods were made, not where they were posted from. An item manufactured in China but shipped from a warehouse in Germany is treated as Chinese for customs purposes. Claiming a zero rate under a trade agreement normally requires the sender to provide a statement of origin.
Put your figures into the calculator — it handles gift relief, the £135 threshold and currency conversion at live exchange rates.