At the turn of the year, the United Kingdom will be a non-EU country in the same way the United States and China. If you order goods from the UK, parcels sent to you from there must be declared as of 1 January 2021, and possible taxes and customs duties must be paid for them.
Customers of online shops are advised to not decide on purchases merely on the basis of prices given by the shops. A rule of thumb is that customs clearance adds about 30 % to the price of your purchase. This price includes the purchase price of the product, the transport costs as well as any customs duty and VAT.
If the value of your consignment exceeds 22 euros, it must undergo customs clearance and is subject to value added tax. Exceptions to this rule are alcohol, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, perfumes and eau de toilette products, which must always be cleared through Customs. In addition to VAT, possible import duties will be levied only when the value of a consignment exceeds 150 euros. It is worth noting that customs duty and tax are determined according to the country from where the goods are delivered. Imposition of customs duty and tax also depend on whether or not the goods are delivered to you as undeclared. The country of location of the online shop is not significant.
If your goods are delivered from an EU member state and have been manufactured or declared in the EU, then your goods do not undergo customs clearance, and you do not pay customs duty or VAT to Finnish Customs. As a special case, the EU customs legislation applies to Northern Ireland, meaning that Northern Ireland is treated as any other EU country. If your goods are delivered from Northern Ireland, they do not undergo customs clearance.
If you order goods on the web, it is good to note already that, after 1 July 2021, all goods with a value of under 22 euros arriving from outside the EU need to be declared and are subject to VAT.
What if I order goods from the UK during 2020, but they are not delivered until 2021?
If the transport of the goods begins in 2020, the goods will be treated as Union goods when they arrive in Finland and no customs clearance is needed. However, if the transport of the goods does not start until 2021, the consignment must be cleared through Customs and the import duties must be paid even if you ordered the goods before the UK’s exit date.
Example of the amount of tax when goods manufactured outside the EU and the UK are delivered from the UK in 2021
If in 2021 you order sports footwear worth 200 euros from the UK, and the shoes have been manufactured for example in India, that is, outside the EU and the UK, and the transport costs amount to 20 euros, the amounts of customs duty and VAT to be levied on the consignment are determined as follows:
If the consignment to be declared is transported by Posti, VAT is to be paid also on the Posti processing fee.
Example of the amount of tax when British goods are delivered from the UK in 2021
Consignments from the UK must be declared and are always subject to VAT when their value exceeds 22 euros. If the country of origin of the goods is Great Britain or an EU country, you will not need to pay any customs duty for the goods. The country of origin is usually mentioned on the order confirmation or the invoice.
If in 2021 you order a suit worth 200 euros from the UK, and the suit was manufactured in the UK and the transport costs amount to 20 euros, the amount of VAT to be levied on the consignment is determined as follows:
You can easily find out the amount of customs duty and VAT with our customs duty calculator before you order goods online. The customs duty calculator will also guide you through the steps to take when you declare your goods to Finland.
The EU and the UK concluded the negotiations on their future relationship on 24 December 2020.The agreement approval process started immediately in Finland and in the other EU member states. The EU and the UK are aiming to implement the agreement starting on 1 January 2021.
More information on how Brexit affects online shoppers:
https://tulli.fi/en/private-persons/brexit
Customs duty calculator: https://tulli.fi/en/customs-duty-calculator?current=start¤cy-id=1
Finnish Customs facilitates the trade in goods and ensures its correctness, offers customer-oriented services and protects society, the environment and the citizens. Customs efficiently collects customs duties and similar charges, fairway dues and other taxes and charges levied on import goods. Customs also compiles the official foreign trade statistics on the imports, exports and trade balance of Finland. As a government agency steered by the Ministry of Finance through performance management, Customs cooperates both with the private business sector and with domestic and foreign authorities. Customs has around 1 900 employees. Finnish Customs is a part of the customs system of the European Union.
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