Customs clearance: what a parcel from outside the EU costs in Portugal

What changed on 1 July 2026

For years the practical rule was simple and everybody knew it by heart: a parcel bought outside the European Union worth up to €150 paid no customs duty. It paid VAT, from 1 July 2021 onwards, but duty did not apply.

That rule ceased to exist on 1 July 2026¹. Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 of 11 February 2026 abolished the relief, and the Portuguese tax and customs authority announced it in a note dated 26 June 2026 in these terms:

The customs duty relief on the import of goods of negligible value, that is goods whose total intrinsic value does not exceed €150 per consignment, is eliminated.

In its place came a simplified regime:

In addition to VAT (due since 1 July 2021), customs duties of €3 per addition become payable on the import of 'eCommerce goods' (business-to-consumer consignments) contained in a consignment whose intrinsic value does not exceed a total of €150.

It is worth bearing in mind that the overwhelming majority of guides, articles and forum answers you will still find on this subject were written before that date and describe the previous regime. If you are comparing what you are about to pay with what you paid last year, the numbers will not match.

The €3 is per item, not per parcel

This is the point that changes the arithmetic and that almost no page highlights.

The unit is not the parcel: it is the addition, meaning each distinct item declared in the consignment. The example belongs to the tax authority itself¹:

For example, a consignment with a total value of €100 containing a shirt and a hat, that is two additions, now owes €6 of customs duties.

The practical consequence falls disproportionately on anyone buying many cheap items at once. Ten small pieces in the same order are ten additions, that is €30 of duty, regardless of whether each one costs €4 or €40. On a €60 order, the duty alone is half the value of the purchase, before VAT even enters the picture.

Above €150: the tariff takes over

The €3-per-addition regime only exists up to €150 of intrinsic value. Beyond that, the tax authority is explicit: the amount of duty is determined on the basis of the duty rate applicable to the goods in question¹.

That rate comes from the Common Customs Tariff and depends on the commodity code of the product⁴. There is no single figure: a garment, a pair of shoes and a phone carry different rates, and some categories are zero-rated. Establishing the correct commodity code is a classification question rather than an arithmetical one, which is why our calculator asks for the rate instead of guessing it, just as it asks for the marginal income tax rate on the capital-gains calculators.

Intrinsic value: the number that decides everything

The €150 and €45 thresholds are not measured by the total you paid. They are measured by the intrinsic value, which article 1(48) of the Union Customs Code Delegated Act defines as the price of the goods themselves, excluding transport and insurance costs³.

An example makes the difference clear:

• Goods: €140
• Shipping: €30
• Total paid to the seller: €170

The intrinsic value is still €140, so the consignment stays inside the simplified regime. Shipping does not count towards the threshold. But, as the next section shows, it does count towards the VAT base. It is this asymmetry, rather than the amounts themselves, that generates most of the confusion.

Why the VAT is higher than you expected

The base VAT is charged on is not the product price. Article 17.º of the Portuguese VAT Code requires the customs value to be increased by the taxes, customs duties, charges and other levies due before or by reason of the import itself, as well as by ancillary costs such as commission, packaging, transport and insurance, incurred up to the first place of destination in national territory².

The tax authority reduces this to an operational formula³:

VAT = (IV + CD) × VAT rate

where IV is the intrinsic value and CD are the costs to the final destination: transport, insurance, taxes and other charges due by reason of the import, including the customs duties themselves and the customs presentation fee charged by the carrier.

In plain terms: you pay VAT on the shipping and you pay VAT on the customs duty. This is not an error nor an improper double charge, it is how the taxable base is defined, but it is the reason the final bill usually lands well above the estimate people make in their heads.

The full calculation, step by step

Taking the tax authority's own example and adding shipping and a presentation fee:

The €36.13 of tax is more than a third of the value of the goods. And note the effect of the number of items: had the same €100 been a single item, the duty would fall to €3 and the total tax to €32.44.

What counts as one consignment

The obvious temptation is to split a large purchase into several small ones. The definition closes that door, but it also protects the honest buyer, so it is worth knowing¹:

One consignment corresponds to the goods sent simultaneously by the same sender to the same recipient and covered by the same transport contract.

And, in the other direction:

Goods dispatched by the same sender to the same recipient that were ordered and sent separately, even if they arrive on the same day but in separate parcels at the destination postal operator or express carrier, must be considered distinct consignments.

So what groups the goods is neither the seller nor the arrival date: it is the transport contract. Two orders placed days apart and shipped separately are two consignments, even if they arrive together. Note, though, that splitting rarely pays under the new regime, because each consignment pays its own per-item duty and may carry its own customs presentation fee.

Gifts between individuals: the €45 relief

Consignments sent by one private individual to another fall under a separate chapter of the Community system of customs reliefs. Being non-commercial imports, occasional in character and intended for personal or family use, they are admitted free of import duty provided the total value of the consignment does not exceed €45³. On those terms they also benefit from a VAT exemption.

Two important warnings:

1. The relief is lost in full above €45, not merely on the excess. A gift declared at €50 pays duty and VAT on the whole €50, not on €5.
2. It must be a genuine gift. A purchase from a shop does not become a private-to-private consignment because the sender writes "gift" on the declaration. Customs always assigns a value to the goods, even where they are a present or a consignment of no commercial value³.

If the seller already charged VAT

Many international sites are registered under the Import One Stop Shop, known by the acronym IOSS. Where that applies, the seller charges Portuguese VAT at the moment of purchase, on orders up to €150, and VAT is not charged again on arrival.

Because this depends on the seller rather than on the values of the order, it is always prudent to check the invoice before assuming any figure. If VAT was already paid at checkout, all that remains of what is described here is the customs duty and any customs presentation fee.

What this page deliberately leaves out

So that the figures presented can be trusted, some matters are deliberately left uncalculated and merely flagged:

• The tariff classification of the goods. It sets the duty rate above €150, and establishing it requires identifying the correct commodity code in the Customs Tariff⁴.
• Goods subject to excise duties, such as alcoholic beverages, tobacco, perfumes and toilet waters. They are excluded from these reliefs and carry levies of their own.
• The amount of the customs presentation fee, which each operator sets freely.
• Consignments from territories inside the Union customs territory but outside its fiscal territory, such as the Canary Islands, which follow a distinct procedure.
• Anti-dumping duties and other trade defence measures applicable to specific products.