German Customs Duty Regulations Revised Dec 2008
Customs duty regulations are easing up! Right before year-end, the customs office declared new import duty regulations for flight passengers entering Germany from non-European countries.
Under the old import duty regulation, purchased items were not to exceed € 175 per adult to remain duty free, but now this has been raised to € 430 per person (for people under 15 years of age, the former amount still applies).
Another change is the now unlimited import of coffee, tea and perfume – it is no longer rationed.
Tobacco and spirits import duty regulations remain unchanged. But additionally, minors as of 17 years of age, may bring in 4 liters of wine and 16 liters of beer.
If you send anything to Germany via postal service, the following changes apply: Anything sent to Germany up to €150 in value remains exempt from import duty, but is still liable to import sales tax (19% MwSt. or VAT) if the value exceeds € 22.
More information in German at Deutscher Zoll.
It is about time this amount was raised. It does take German institutions a bit longer to react, but we are an habitual folk.
Tags: customs duty in Germany, limits of imported purchases, maximum amount of duty free
January 1st, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Thanks for the information. I hadn’t heard that the limits have changed.
I tripped up over the old limit of €175 a few years ago flying back from the States, after having made a number of European trips shortly before. I completely forgot how low the limit for the USA was and when I came through customs at Frankfurt said without thinking, yes I had bought some things on my trip. I had bought several pairs of jeans and some sweatshirts. Of course, they wanted to check everything and see the receipts. It cost a fortune to pay the duty on them!
In the past I have also tried to buy vitamin tablets from the USA on the internet (much cheaper than buying here at the time). They got as far as Cologne airport and were then sent back by the German customs. You can’t import medication without a prescription, and vitamin tablets are apparently medication
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:16 pm
This time around, when we flew to New York in November 08, even the immigration officer in Frankfurt asked us about our business of flying to New York for only four days. I mentioned sight-seeing and shopping and he immediately advised us on our tax-free limit.
He told us to check with somebody else to get the right figures as he mentioned “so ungefähr € 150″.
Most of the stuff I ever got in the States was extra weight on me. Thank goodness, they don’t weigh people at the customs office…:))
Interesting to hear the part about the vitamin tablets. My Japanese friends always load up on vitamin tablets when they come to Germany for a visit. They are supposedly very expensive in Japan. Even though I had lived in Japan for several years, I never looked at the price there.
About vitamin tablets being medication – strange to hear this customs ruling as anybody can buy them at any discount shop or supermarket for very little money in Germany.