Customs Formalities Applied with International Postal Consignments
Service Standard
1. General information
This standard has been prepared for persons who receive/send postal consignments from/to non-Community countries. Service standard „Customs Formalities Applied with International Postal Consignments” (hereinafter: service standard) explains the rules of declaration and taxation as well as the restrictions/prohibitions established in relation to dispatch/receipt of postal consignments.
When performing customs formalities of postal consignments Estonian Tax and Customs Board (hereinafter: ETCB) adheres to the following legal acts: Community Customs Code, provisions for the implementation of the Community Customs Code, Customs Act, Postal Act, UPU (Universal Postal Union) Convention and other legal acts.
2. Declaration of postal consignments
2.1. Obligation to declare
A declaration in writing must be lodged for a postal consignment sent from a non-Community country if:
- the value of a consignment exceeds 22 euros (incl. gifts)
- the consignment contains goods or personal effects subject to import restrictions;
- the quantity of a consignment exceeds 1000 kilograms.
A declaration in writing must be lodged for a postal consignment sent to a non-Community country if:
- the customs value of a consignment exceeds 1000 euros or its quantity exceeds 1000 kg
- the consignment contains goods or personal effects subject to export restrictions
2.2. Declaration procedure
2.2.1. You can declare a postal consignment sent to you from a non-Community country
- In the post office indicated in the postal notice informing about the arrival of a postal consignment. The postal service provider will complete a customs declaration for you. You have to pay the service charge for completion of the customs declaration and import duties and taxes due in the post office upon what you will receive the postal consignment. More detailed information on the service charges of Estonian Post Ltd is available on their home page at the address: http://www.post.ee/index.php?id=6112.
- In the closest customs office – in case you refuse from the fee-charging service provided by the post office for completion of a customs declaration. Information about the customs offices is available on our homepage under the Contacts section at the address: http://www.emta.ee/?id=972. According to the customs regulations a natural person may lodge a traveller’s declaration with the customs office instead of a customs declaration if the value of the postal consignment is up to 1000 euros and its quantity remains below 1000 kilograms. You may fill in the declaration by hand, preferably in capital letters. You may also submit the declaration in the electronic environment via e-tax/e-customs communication channel. Taking the declaration endorsed by customs authorities and the postal notice with you please go to the post office indicated in the notice, where you will receive the consignment. Please check if the customs officer has made a notation on the postal notice confirming that the goods are released for consumption.
- Electronically in Internet via e-tax/e-customs communication channel.
2.2.2. You can declare a postal consignment to be sent to a non-Community country in the closest customs office to you. You have to complete the customs declaration for export, take the endorsement of a customs office on it and go to the post office. You will later receive one copy of the export declaration from the customs office.
For postal consignments subject to declaration please present an invoice or any other document in proof of the value and ownership right of the goods, and in cases provided by law also a special permit is required (for example some medicinal products require the permit of the State Agency of Medicines).
2.3. In case you declare a postal consignment in the customs office
- You have to present:
- a personal identification document
- the postal notice and the accompanying documents of the consignment
- a customs or a traveller’s declaration completed by you
- you have to pay import duties (VAT, customs duty, excise duty)
2.4. In order to receive a postal consignment from the post office
- you have to present your personal identification document and the postal notice
- you will be given the accompanying documents of the parcel and printouts of the customs declaration completed by the post office employee or by yourself in the electronic environment via e-tax/e-customs channel. You are expected to check the declared data, complete your personal data in box 8 of the declaration and write your signature in box 54
- you have to pay import duties (VAT, customs duty, excise duty)
- you will pay service charge to post office for completion of the customs declaration
2.4.1. In case you refused from the fee-charging service provided by the post office for completion of the customs declaration please submit the customs declaration endorsed by customs to the post office in order to receive the postal consignment.
2.4.2. You are obliged to check and where appropriate to complete the data inserted in the customs declaration by a post office worker, for example:
- your name, address, number of your identification document or your personal ID code in the blank fields of boxes 8 and 44 of the declaration
- information on the goods subject to declaration: commodity code, description of the goods, quantity and value of the goods
3. Taxation of postal consignments with import duties and taxes
- a postal consignment containing goods with the total value exceeding 22 euros shall be taxed on the basis of the customs value of goods in conformity with the established procedure and the rates of duty
- if a postal consignment is sent from a natural person to another natural person for non-commercial purposes, i.e. free of charge and occasionally, containing the items the value of which is possible to distinguish, then the goods with the value up to 45 euros shall be exempt from import duties and taxes. Upon your wish it is possible to use 2,5% standard rate of duty for the goods subject to import customs duties within the non-commercial consignment on condition that the total value of such goods within the consignment does not exceed 700 euros. In case you do not wish to use the 2,5% standard rate of duty, the goods with the value exceeding the tax-free cost limit shall be subject to import duties and taxes normally applied
- the amount of import duties and taxes legally due is indicated in the postal notice sent to you and on the customs declaration
- inside the international postal consignment sent from a natural person to another natural person it is allowed to import the following quantities of goods exempt from duties and taxes, the value of which shall be included among the tax-free cost limit:
- 50 cigarettes, or
- 25 cigarillos, or 10 cigars, or 50 grams of tobacco
- 1 litre of alcohol, or 2 litres of wine
- 50 grams of perfume, or 0,250 litres of toilet water
4. You have the right to:
- provide supplementary personal data in the blank field of box 8 of the printout of the customs declaration drawn up by a postal service provider
- refuse from the fee-charging service of a postal service provider for completion of the customs declaration
- replace the customs declaration prepared for a postal consignment sent to you as a natural person with the traveller’s declaration in case the value of the consignment does not exceed 1000 euros or its quantity remains below 1000 kilograms
- declare more than one parcels post with one declaration if they have been sent at the same time by the same consignor to the same consignee
- abandon the postal consignment sent to you from a foreign country
- authorize another person to declare the postal consignment instead of you
- receive:
- an endorsed receipt proving that you have paid import duties and taxes due in a post office or in a customs office
- a copy of the customs declaration
5. Prohibitions and restrictions established for goods sent by post
Sending of certain goods from Estonia to non-Community countries or from non-Community countries to Estonia by post is prohibited and for some goods import/export restrictions have been established. More detailed information on prohibitions and restrictions is available on our homepage in section „Prohibitions and restrictions” at the address: http://www.emta.ee/?id=2960.
6. Rights and obligations of ETCB regarding the service provided to you:
- to follow effective legal acts while performing our duties
- to present the identification document at your first request
- to provide you information on the effective customs regulations
- to assist you with the completion of a customs declaration
- to inform you immediately verbally, or in writing at your request, on the decision made in respect of your application for tax exemption
- to perform customs examination of a postal consignment and take samples/specimens of the goods
- to seize a postal consignment in case of a suspicion that customs regulations have been violated
- upon detection of prohibited goods:
- to return a postal consignment to a country of departure
- to confiscate the goods
- to apply other lawful sanctions in case of violation of the customs regulations
7. Information
In order to avoid any misunderstandings we advise you to ask additional information about the procedure of application of customs formalities with international postal consignments:
- by calling to a postal service provider who has completed the customs declaration, using the phone number indicated in the postal notice
- from a local customs office
- from customs information (phone: 8800814; e-mail: tolliinfo@emta.ee)
You will get more detailed information about effective customs regulations:
- when asking the customs official on duty
- consulting our homepage in Internet (http://www.emta.ee)
In order to improve our customer service we expect feedback and proposals from you at the address: Narva mnt 9j, 15176 Tallinn.
We will take your proposals and comments into account in the process of development of the service standards and in improvement of our customer service system.