Customs clearance may be carried out if:

  • the goods received can be clearly identified (exact description of the goods),
  • the real value of the goods is known,
  • the recipient can be identified.

If the above information is available, the Post may initiate an application for customs procedures. After the submission of such application, the Directorate will examine it and decide whether to accept or reject it (in practice, this takes place within 30 minutes). After the customs procedure is finished, the consignment is delivered to the competent regional post office according to the addressee’s place of residence. The post office will notify the customer of the arrival of the parcel, informing him/her of the amount of any customs duties and non-Community taxes and charges that may be payable, and of any postal administration fees, after the payment of which on the spot, the post office will hand over the parcel.

After making an order, the consignee does not always have accurate information about the details the consignor will indicate on the consignment note. Customs duty will be imposed based on the customs value of the goods, so its correctness is checked more closely by customs authorities. Based on their experience from checks, the Directorate found that in many cases consignors fail to indicate data reflecting the truth on the consignment note (e.g. incorrect description of goods, not the real value), which increases the time required for the delivery of the goods due to additional checks and requests for documents. Due to the above, you are advised to contact the seller when making your order so that the real value and description of the goods are included in the transport document. After ordering the consignment, you are recommended to send all data and documents required for customs clearance (order, invoice, transfer receipt) to the Post, with reference to the tracking code, so that we can speed up customs clearance and the delivery of products you have ordered, by also saving some administrative costs for you, in some cases.

Customs clearance cannot be carried out based on general descriptions of goods (such as “gift”, “clothing”, “food”, “toy”), so it is important to indicate the exact description on the consignment note and the CN23 document (e.g., “mobile phone”, “tablet”, “plastic toy train”, “remote controlled toy helicopter”, “cotton T-shirt”).

The Directorate will only accept a request for customs clearance for a consignment if the value of the goods in the consignment has been determined in accordance with reality (current market price).

If there is any doubt about the value of the declared goods, the invoice confirming the purchase of the goods, the transfer order, the purchase order, etc. may also be requested by the Directorate. The Post will request the necessary documents from customers, in which case it takes longer to deliver the goods.

For consignments of less than EUR 150 in value, VAT will be charged at the time of sale, together with the price and other costs of the goods, if the online seller has connected to the IOSS (Import One Stop Shop) system. In this case, no payment obligation of customs duties or VAT arises during the customs clearance of such goods.

You can find detailed information about that system under the tab “Changes as of 1 July 2021".