From July 1, all parcels from non-EU countries are subject to customs declaration

Orders from Chinese, American and Russian online stores will rise in price, since in Finland they will have to pay VAT regardless of the cost of the goods. Customs warns of possible delays in delivery.

Overseas online shopping has become even more popular during the pandemic. Most of the orders are made by Finnish residents in China, the USA and other non-EU countries. Purchases with a value not exceeding 22 euros are not subject to customs duties and are delivered directly to the recipient. But this rule will change from tomorrow.

From July 1, for each parcel from third countries, it will be necessary to fill out a customs declaration and pay value added tax. You can calculate the cost of the duty on the website of the Customs Department. What matters is the date of arrival of the shipment to the EU: if the order was made before July, but it arrived at the distribution center of Finland or another EU country after the changes took effect, then you will have to fill out a declaration and pay VAT.

New system provides for the ability to pay the customer value added tax at the same time the order is made. For this, the online store must join the European base IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop). At the same time, the customer is not exempt from the need to fill out the customs declaration, even in this case.

According to the Finnish customs, so far about 100 thousand parcels have come to the country, which required declaring. After the change, their number is estimated to reach 10-15 million per year. The growth will be so significant that customs are already warning about possible delays of up to several weeks in the processing and delivery of parcels.

The police, on the other hand, are warning citizens that new customs regulations may create new types of fraud. Those waiting for their order may fall for the bait of criminals posing as customs officials or offering to expedite the processing of the customs declaration.

Thus, in June, many Finnish phone numbers received SMS with the text in Finnish: “Waiting for a parcel? You can follow her here. ” By clicking on the link, the recipient was taken to a site that installed the virus program Flubot on the phone. This virus accessed banking and other personal data stored on the phone.