EU Killed De Minimus: The Death of Cheap Parcels from July 2026

From 1 July 2026 the EU is scrapping its €150 customs de minimis threshold. Cheap parcels just died. Every low-value package from outside Europe now faces a new flat-rate €3 customs duty per product type — plus France’s extra €2 “"taxe sur les petits colis" (TPC) and a potential patchwork of national fees.

In this episode I explain exactly why the EU followed Trump’s lead to abolish De Minimus, how Temu and Shein gamed the old system with 91% of small parcels from China, and why even experts can’t keep up with the constant rule changes.

The Paradox Bomb: Rules designed to make trade fairer and crush e-commerce fraud are actually making everything more complicated, more expensive, and potentially hurting the very businesses and consumers they were meant to protect. 

So what for business leaders? Higher friction costs, a massive incentive to shift to EU fulfilment centres instead of direct shipping from the UK, US or Asia. Listen to the podcast for more details.

If you send or receive small packages to Europe — e-commerce, cross-border gifts, online shopping — this is essential listening.

Keywords / Tags: EU de minimis 2026, end of €150 threshold, low value packages customs, low value consignments, small parcels EU, customs duties July 2026, Temu, Shein , EU rules, e-commerce imports Europe, cheap parcels, EU customs changes 2026, global trade podcast.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This episode does not constitute advice in any form.  Get expert advice from an expert, specific to your circumstances, before relying on any information contained in this episode.  Rules, legislation, practice guidance and thresholds can also change. 

The content of this podcast is intended only to provide an information resource of interest and does not constitute legal, tax, business, or financial advice of any kind. Should you require advice, engage an appropriately qualified person. Views expressed are my own.

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Transcript

Justin Hayden Miller:  Imagine ordering that cheap gadget or birthday gift online, thinking you've got a great deal, only to have the delivery company slap you with extra taxes and duties you never saw coming. Sound familiar? Well, prick your ears up, because from one January twenty twenty six, the EU, the European Union is scrapping its one hundred and fifty euro customs de minimis threshold for. Small packages are about to get even more expensive, more painful and even more political because the European Union is following Donald Trump's playbook on de minimis, taking direct aim at the flood of ultra cheap parcels from platforms like Temu, and then another brick quietly being added to the wall of global trade fragmentation. I'm Justin Hayden Miller. Welcome to Global Trade deciphered. Deciphering the policies, trends and geopolitics reshaping global trade. Today I want to talk about something that we all do, occasionally receiving a small low value parcel. Of course, whether it's a Christmas, your birthday, or just because you've bought something you wanted on the internet. When we receive packages that have been sent from abroad, the delivery company or the post office, whatever can refuse to allow us to have the product until we've paid customs duties and sometimes other taxes, such as VAT, if they haven't already been paid by someone else. It can be bleeding damned annoying, because it means that you can buy a product on the internet for a stated price, but before you actually get it, you get a bill for additional duties and taxes that you weren't necessarily expecting. It's notoriously annoying and frustrating. I wanted to discuss this issue with you today, not just because it's becoming ever more political and because from one July twenty twenty six, the European Union customs rules will change for importations of low value packages yet again. And most importantly, the EU will be scrapping its one hundred and fifty euro customs de minimis threshold. To understand my point, let's start off by saying what the present EU rules are. Firstly, for low value gifts, parcels, personal gifts sent between private individuals like your Auntie Frances, Auntie Joan or Cousin Deborah live in the UK or the US sending parcels to the EU. If the intrinsic value is less than forty five euros, then there is ordinarily no VAT tax or customs duties on the parcel at all. Both the sender and the receiver are pretty tranquil, and this has been broadly the case since the nineteen eighties. But the present package must be sent occasionally. You can't send one every day. You can't be too generous or, you know, be suspicious. The goods must be for personal or family use, and the sender has to declare it properly as a gift with the value clearly stated and under, you know, forty five euros. All relatively simple and clear. But you know, nevertheless, the filling of the forms is a bit of a pain in the backside. And if the form isn't completed properly by the person sending the package or whatever, then someone has to cough up the customs duties and the taxes. But quite honestly, that's the only case where small parcels are relatively simple and clear. And that's precisely the problem. If the value of the parcel containing your family gift is over forty five euros, then you have to pay VAT. And if its value is over one hundred and fifty euros, then you have to pay customs duties in addition. And you may even need to pay local taxes. So for example, if you send the parcel to France, then there will normally be an additional charge to pay what's translated as no joke little package tax. Tax only particularly. And that's currently a flat tax of two euros, but only if the value is between forty five and one hundred and fifty euros. Things get a lot more complicated if the package is sent by a commercial company from abroad. For example, if you buy something on the internet and it's dispatched from China. The current rule as of June twenty twenty six, is that customs duties aren't due, provided the intrinsic value of the package is one hundred and fifty euros or less. This is the longstanding EU de minimis rule. If the package is worth more than one hundred and fifty euros, then import duties need to be paid. And if the sender doesn't get them paid well, it's up to the recipient regardless. Value added tax VAT is due whatever the value. So if sent to an. Imported into France, that's usually around twenty percent VAT tax charge on the value of the goods. If the seller doesn't organise the payment via a special regime called the import one stop shop, then the recipient has to pay it. And in France since March this year, twenty twenty six, there is a two euro tax, Textually, particularly small parcel administrative tax I mentioned on imports on packages less than one hundred and fifty euros. This is a separate tax from customs duties and VAT. And that's not it, because these rules are only in place for an additional two months because everything is going to change again on one July this year. Like the US, the EU is getting rid of the customs de minimis of one hundred and fifty euros. Do you remember when Trump got rid of the US customs de minimis limit of eight hundred dollars, and lots of news outlets were up in arms about it? I actually thought it was a good idea, but it was framed as even more US tariffs on us on the US population. CNN highlighted it as a massive tariff on millions of Americans, the purchasers. the chaos, with similar alarming headlines from NBC news, CNBC, The New York Times and in a BBC documentary that I seem to remember, the problems and additional risks of inflation in the US were discussed because of this. The announcement was abrupt by Trump, certainly, but most companies seem to have handled it pretty well in the US and, well, the EU is now following Trump's footsteps and abandoning the customs de minimis itself. Double standards by the press. We'll see closer to the implementation date, when news outlets are more likely to be reporting on this. Getting rid of the customs de minimis, the EU will be applying a three euro flat rate duty on low value packages, and the three euro charge will apply to each type of item contained in the parcel, which creates its own complications. That's different from the two euro charge that I was talking about previously applied by France, which is charged in addition. And just to add these specific customs charges and even taxes that I've mentioned can be more than simply a couple of euros on a package because they can apply not just to the package itself, but to the number of individual types of products contained in the package. Which is why, together with the number of applicable possible permutations, if these issues affect you, then you must get specific advice from an expert in the relevant country that concerns you, which takes into account your specific circumstances and wait for it. The EU says that its three euro customs charge is transitional and the rules are going to change yet again to put a more definitive EU customs data hub system in place, probably in July twenty twenty eight or thereabouts. Unless they say they decide to delay yet more uncertainty. If you're lost, I forgive you. Even experts can't sometimes keep up. You know, it's it's like trying to assemble Ikea furniture, which is already a pain. But when the instructions change every six months and the store keeps sending you a new manual while you're halfway through. Absolutely exhausting. The rules changed in nineteen ninety three. In two thousand and two. In twenty ten. In twenty twenty one. In March twenty twenty six. At least in France, they'll change again in France in July twenty twenty six. A couple of months, and yet relatively soon after that. No doubt different sets of rules apply to VAT charges. Fat charges, customs duties and other rules to country specific package taxes and different rules can apply to those different VAT, customs and specific taxes, according to whether the package is personal or commercial, whether the amounts are paid by the sender, an intermediary or the person receiving the package. Couple on to that. The fact that the rules frequently change. Well, lots of people are pulling their hair out. You know, if you see a bald person today, there's a reasonable possibility that their work involves importing small packages into the European Union. And they've pulled out all their hair trying to fathom everything out. I met up with a colleague yesterday. We both worked as VAT tax lawyers and we had a coffee together, which we sometimes do when she was drinking a cinnamon cafe latte. Ice cold, I should add. We mentioned we talked about my podcast, and I told her that my next episode would be on low value packages. Yeah, I didn't run it as I'm doing now. I didn't give her any clue as to the line that I'd be particularly taking, or give her any details of what I was going to say, and she told me that she had a client in the e-commerce importation business. The company was assessed by the authorities because they argued that the company owner owed them some charges, VAT taxes, customs duties, whatever. And my friend told me that in the end, the client considered that it was just too damned complicated to keep up adapting to the changes, and he closed the business, which was otherwise reasonably profitable. The change of EU rules that applied in twenty twenty one were technically known as the VAT package because they were a package of measures concerning VAT. But if you think about it, they might as well have called it the VAT package because of too many people getting assessed a packet of VAT and whatever that they weren't expecting families receiving presents in the post, and the seller hasn't already accounted for the VAT due, or importers and intermediaries who might not have properly understood the rules because they frequently change, or because they're jointly and severally liable, and someone else just hasn't coughed up the relevant amount to pay. Apart from that package, another phrase that the European Union frequently attributes to these types of changes, especially those that they don't intend to be definitive, is quick fixes. It's a means of putting on a positive spin on something that really should be sorted out more properly. A quick fix is the equivalent of a plaster or putting a patch on a bicycle tyre. It's fine in an emergency to limp your home when you're screwed on the roadside and have got no other options. But European businesses deserve better. They don't want a quick fix that requires them to have to reinvest yet again in new procedures and IT systems to be able to handle yet another series of new rules. Just give them the rules and let them run with it. No quick fix. No patch on a tire. Replace the entire wheel for them if necessary and make sure it doesn't break down again. I live in France and I've got family in the UK since Brexit. The UK is no longer in the European Union customs area, so these rules apply for people that send presents from the UK to US. I've had people call me saying it's so bleeding complicated now to send packages and they're worried that I won't get it or, you know, get huge charges when they arrive because of the admin of having to pay taxes at the end and asking me if I could just send them a bank details so they can wire the dosh to me and I can buy what they were going to send me instead? Might this not be an indirect intention for the countries deciding EU legislation on the matter? At the end of the day, inordinately complicating cumbersome rules on packages just discourages some people from buying from abroad. And it's just easier for them to buy what they want in their home country, which helps the local economy and maximizes the authorities to be able to ensure that they are actually getting paid the necessary taxes. Don't get me wrong, the amounts claimed by the authorities are due and they're simply doing their job, as is the European Commission that enacts this legislation. And they do very good work. It's not their fault. They enact and apply rules often set by international treaties and politicians. And it ultimately boils down to what is good policy. I think that one criterion for good customs and tax policy entails that the tax is broadly understandable to the layman. Okay, no problem that you might need a tax or customs expert or even a lawyer to explain or to analyze the intricacies. But a good tax and even a good customs charge is one that can be broadly understood by someone that gets a bill to pay it. There are good reasons to implement these small package rules. The intention is generally a good one. If you buy goods from abroad that are sent to you in a parcel, then it's important that they're broadly taxed at the same rate as if you bought those goods in your local country. Otherwise, that disadvantages local companies by giving a tax break to foreign ones. It's unfair. And that's what these rules seek to prevent. Secondly, there is a hell of a lot of fraud associated with e-commerce, especially in the past, but it's continuing. Certain foreign e-commerce companies would sell goods to EU consumers and disappear into the ether the moment they had anything to pay to the authorities. We're not talking a few million euros here. We're talking billions and billions. And again, these rules seek to prevent that. The vast majority of the billions of small parcels, I think it's I think it's about ninety percent in fact, have been coming from China, undercutting EU sellers, dodging proper checks and creating massive processing headaches at borders. The commission proposes the rules, but the Council of the EU, that's the twenty seven member state governments has to agree on them. They keep tweaking the system because the old one hundred and fifty euro duty free threshold got completely gamed by platforms like Temu and Shine. So politicians in the council pushed for quick fixes. That patchwork is exactly why it feels like a mess. If France's playbook to apply an administrative charge on importations of goods truly is legitimate, then this is an invitation for each member state to layer on its own national fees. On top of the EU wide rules, companies have to keep ripping out and rewriting their IT every couple of years because the politicians can't resist patching the loophole of the day. And here's the paradox. Boom. Rules designed to make trade fairer and stop fraud are actually making everything infinitely more complicated, more costly, and ultimately potentially hurting the very small companies and consumers that they're meant to protect. Boom. The commission gets blamed a lot, but the people at the commission, the policy wonks, and those responsible for writing and applying European legislation do an excellent job. They're mostly implementing what the member states have demanded. I think the European Union is great, but the root is the structure itself. A single market with twenty seven governments, countries that all want to protect their local retailers. And you only need a couple in order to kick the solution down the road. They can't agree on one clean, stable system up front and implemented in an expedited manner that is favorable to their own companies. That's not an anti-euro jibe. It's a cry for its members. The twenty seven European countries that make up the European Union to get their act together. Thanks for having listened to the podcast. The content of this podcast is intended only to provide an information resource of interest, and does not constitute legal, tax or financial advice of any kind. Should you require advice, then you should engage an appropriately qualified person to provide you specific advisory services in the field. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast are my own and do not necessarily represent the views, thoughts or opinions of any law firm, nor that of any third party, other person, company or organization. Stay tuned for the next episode.