What you actually pay on a parcel into the UK
Duty is relieved under £135 but VAT never is, VAT is charged on the duty as well as the goods, and the carrier adds a fee of its own. Three worked examples.
Three separate charges can land on a parcel arriving in the United Kingdom, and they follow different rules. Getting one of them wrong is how an order that looked like £72 arrives as a £106 bill.
The three charges
Customs duty depends on what the goods are and where they were made. It is relieved entirely on consignments of £135 or less. Above that it is charged on the goods plus shipping and insurance, not on the goods alone.
Import VAT has no relief at all. It is charged from the first pound, at 20% on most things and 0% on a long list that includes most food and children’s clothing. Critically, VAT is charged on a base that includes the customs duty — so duty does not merely cost you the duty, it raises the VAT too.
A clearance fee is charged by the carrier, not by HMRC. Royal Mail’s is £8.00. It is the carrier’s price for handling the declaration and collecting the other two, so it only appears when there is something to collect.
Why £135 is the number that matters
The relief threshold is assessed on the intrinsic value of the goods — what you paid for the items, excluding shipping. A £130 order with £20 postage is under the threshold. The same order at £140 is not, and duty is then calculated on £160.
That step is the single largest jump in the whole calculation. It is also why splitting an order can change what you pay, and why the shipping cost that took you over the line is not itself part of the test.
Three real examples
Each of these uses the rates this site holds for the relevant commodity codes, and an assumed order value. The assumption is stated; the rates are not.
| Clothing | Coffee and tea | Electronics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goods | £72.00 | £38.00 | £200.00 |
| Shipping | £10.00 | £8.00 | £15.00 |
| Customs duty | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Import VAT | £16.40 | £0.00 | £43.00 |
| Clearance fee | £8.00 | £0.00 | £8.00 |
| Total | £106.40 | £46.00 | £266.00 |
Three different reasons for a zero in the duty row, and they are worth telling apart.
The clothing order attracts a 12% rate, but at £72 it is under the relief threshold, so no duty is charged. Push the same order over £135 and the 12% starts to bite.
The coffee order pays nothing at all. Its duty is relieved, most tea and coffee is zero-rated for VAT, and with nothing to collect the carrier has no fee to charge. The parcel simply arrives.
The electronics order is over £135 and still pays no duty — because the rate on that commodity code is 0%, not because of any threshold. Consumer electronics is mostly duty-free under the Information Technology Agreement. But VAT applies in full, on the goods and the shipping, which is where the £43.00 comes from.
Where the country of origin changes things
Above £135, origin matters a great deal. The United Kingdom grants a preferential rate to 178 origins on clothing — most of them 0% against a 12% standard — through trade agreements and the Developing Countries Trading Scheme.
Claiming one is not automatic. It requires proof of origin acceptable to customs, and without acceptable proof the standard rate applies whatever the parcel’s actual provenance. The origin tables on each category page list which agreement grants which rate, because that determines what proof you need.
What this guide does not cover
Excise goods — alcohol and tobacco — follow separate rules with their own duties, and nothing here applies to them. Gifts between private individuals have a different threshold again. And the binding classification of any particular item is decided by the destination customs authority, not by this site or by the seller’s description.
Figures quoted above were correct on 23 August 2026. Rates change; the pages linked from this guide carry the current ones, refreshed from the source.