Guides / Personal purchases UK to EU · Updated 30 September 2026

Personal purchases from the UK to Poland and the EU: duty, VAT and allowances

Buying something in the UK and taking or sending it to Poland? Since Brexit that is an import into the EU. Here is how traveller allowances, the gift relief and parcel rules work, including the duty change from 1 July 2026.

This guide is also available in Polish.

Why UK purchases are now imports

Since Brexit, the UK is outside the EU customs territory. Anything you buy in a British shop and then carry or post to Poland, Germany or any other EU country enters the EU as an import. That does not automatically mean a bill: EU law gives private individuals several reliefs. But each relief has its own conditions, and they depend on how the goods travel. There are three common situations:

• you carry the goods yourself in your luggage when you travel from the UK into the EU;
• a friend or relative in the UK sends you a genuine gift;
• you order from a UK online shop and the goods arrive as a parcel.

The rules below are the EU and Polish rules. The UK side is usually simple for private exports, so the questions people actually face arise at the EU border or at parcel delivery.

Carrying goods in your luggage: traveller allowances

If you travel from a non-EU country such as the UK into the EU, you can bring goods for your personal use without paying VAT or duty up to a value limit. According to the European Commission's Your Europe portal, the limit is:

The allowance covers goods in your personal luggage for your own use or as presents. It is a per-traveller limit, and if you exceed it you should use the red channel and declare the goods. Alcohol, tobacco and fuel have separate quantity allowances rather than value limits, and travellers under 17 get no alcohol or tobacco allowance. We cover those quantities in detail in our guide to alcohol and tobacco allowances between the UK and Poland.

Moving house is different. If you are relocating your whole household to Poland, the relevant relief is for personal property on transfer of residence, not the traveller allowance; see personal effects in our glossary.

Gifts sent between private individuals

A parcel sent by one private person in the UK to another in the EU can be admitted free of customs duty, but only within tight conditions. The Polish tax administration (podatki.gov.pl) describes the relief as applying to consignments:

• worth up to EUR 45;
• sent occasionally by a private individual in a non-EU country to a private individual in the EU;
• intended for the recipient's or their family's personal use;
• sent free of charge, with no payment of any kind.

There are also quantity limits for excise goods in gift parcels, which are much lower than the traveller allowances. For example, podatki.gov.pl lists 50 cigarettes, and 1 litre of spirits plus 2 litres of wine, as the maximum that can be covered.

The gift relief does not cover things you have bought yourself and had shipped to you, even if a relative posts them. If you paid for the goods, it is a purchase, not a gift. Declaring a purchase as a gift to avoid charges is a false declaration.

Parcels from UK online shops

VAT is always due

Your Europe states plainly that when you buy goods online from outside the EU, VAT, customs duty and excise duty are always due. There is no longer any small-value VAT exemption. The VAT is collected either at checkout, if the seller uses the EU's Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), or on delivery, when the carrier or postal operator clears the parcel through customs.

What changed for customs duty on 1 July 2026

Until 30 June 2026, parcels with a value up to EUR 150 were exempt from customs duty. That exemption was abolished from 1 July 2026 by Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382. According to the Polish Ministry of Finance (podatki.gov.pl), from 1 July 2026 until 1 July 2028 a transitional customs duty of EUR 3 per item applies to consignments worth up to EUR 150, but only where:

• the import is exempt from VAT at the border because the seller uses the IOSS scheme, or
• the goods are in a postal consignment.

In other cases, for example a low-value parcel sent by a courier where the seller does not use IOSS, duty follows the normal customs tariff and the origin of the goods. Goods of UK origin may qualify for zero duty under the UK–EU trade agreement if the origin conditions are met, but that is not automatic and depends on the product and the paperwork. Do not assume that every cheap parcel from a UK shop pays a flat EUR 3.

Clearance charges from carriers

When a parcel arrives without VAT paid in advance, the courier or postal operator normally lodges the customs declaration for you and collects the VAT and any duty before delivery. Carriers commonly charge their own fee for doing this clearance work, on top of the taxes. The amount depends on the carrier and is set in their terms, so check before you order. If you would rather understand when it makes sense to appoint your own representative, read do you need a customs broker.

A quick way to decide which rule applies

1. Are you carrying it in your own luggage? Use the traveller allowance (EUR 430 by air or sea, EUR 300 by land), plus the separate alcohol and tobacco quantities.
2. Is it a free, occasional gift from one private person to another? The gift relief may apply up to EUR 45; VAT rules still apply to anything above that.
3. Did you buy it online and have it shipped? VAT is due. Duty is EUR 3 per item only for IOSS or postal consignments up to EUR 150; otherwise the tariff and origin rules decide.
4. Are you moving house? Look at transfer-of-residence relief instead.

For more practical detail on the Polish side, including buying from UK marketplaces, see Easy Clearance's article on the rules for importing from the UK for personal use.

Related guides

• Sending gifts to the UK from abroad: VAT, duty and declarations

• Sending commercial samples from the EU to the UK: duty and VAT relief

• Alcohol and tobacco allowances between Great Britain and Poland

Sources

• Travelling with goods: duty-free allowances (Your Europe, European Commission)
• VAT on purchases (Your Europe, European Commission)
• Zwolnienia celne (podatki.gov.pl, Polish Ministry of Finance)

General information, not legal, tax or customs advice. Rules change; confirm current requirements on gov.uk or with a registered agent before you ship.