Delivery
How to send a present overseas without customs charges
Anyone with family in another country knows the routine. You post a present, pay nearly as much in postage as the present cost, fill in a customs form, and three weeks later your mother gets a card telling her to pay a fee before she can collect it.
Why it happens
When goods cross a border, the destination country can charge import duty and sales tax on them, and the courier often adds a handling fee for collecting it. Whether a gift is charged depends on the country, the declared value and sometimes on luck. Rules and thresholds change, so check the destination country's customs website before you post anything valuable.
Three ways round it
- Buy it there. Order from a shop in the country your relative lives in and have it delivered. No border is crossed, so no customs applies.
- Have it made there. This is how Paper Chain works. You make the book from wherever you are; it's printed by a printer in or near the destination country and posted from there.
- Send something with no commercial value. Letters, cards and your own printed photos in an envelope are documents, not goods, in most countries.
Where we print
We print in 15 countries and deliver to 40. In most of them the book is made in the same country or inside the same customs area, such as the EU, so there is nothing to pay on arrival.
For a handful of countries the nearest press is across a customs border. There the book travels by international courier, and the recipient's customs office may charge import tax. We mark those countries clearly on the delivery page and again in the studio before you order.
If you do post a parcel
- Fill in the customs form honestly and legibly, with a realistic value.
- Mark it as a gift, where the form allows.
- Include the recipient's phone number and email. Couriers contact them about fees that way.
- Tell your relative it's coming, so the notice from the courier isn't mistaken for a scam.
Paying in the destination country's currency is normal when a gift is made there. Your card converts it; you see the price before you pay.