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Why post to and from the UK from Spain is more expensive after Brexit

As of December 31st, when the Brexit transition period officially ended, the cost of sending packages to and from UK has gone up. Here's what you need to know.

Why post to and from the UK from Spain is more expensive after Brexit
Image: Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum / Unsplash

Most of us were aware that Brexit was going to affect importation and exportation businesses, but what about the consequences for individual people?

One of the main issues that many UK residents in Spain have already noticed are the high taxes, which must be paid on sending and receiving packages to and from the UK and Spain.

The taxes imposed occur whether you are ordering goods from the UK, if you send a package to the UK, or if friends and family in the UK send you a package in Spain. Typically, you have to pay the fees before you’re allowed to pick the item up at the post, delivery office or online.  

Graham Hunt, an estate agent in Valencia tweeted “Daughter’s friend just received a package from the UK. Not allowed to pick it up without paying customs and taxes, in this case €79. That’s a price increase of 20% in effect. Watch UK exports dry up over next 6 months as EU buyers realise”.

While Juan Pablo Venditti tweeted: “We had problems with a package coming from UK last week, it arrived on January 6th and customs stopped it here in Spain. We had to pay €160 extra in taxes and management fees. We won’t be ordering anything from UK in the near future, it’s a shame”.

Another disgruntled Spanish resident, journalist Eugene Costello experienced similar issues when sending an item to his daughter back in the UK. He tweeted: “I live in Valencia and recently sent an old laptop to my daughter. ParcelForce are withholding it until the bill of £146 is paid. Can this be right? An old laptop sent by a Dad to his daughter, so she can work online since her school is shut?”

According to the UK government website “Most goods arriving in the UK are liable to any or all of the following taxes: Customs Duty, Excise Duty and Import VAT”.

The website also states that these taxes must still be paid whether the person in the UK has:

  • Paid for the goods or is receiving them as a gift
  • If the goods are new or used (including antiques)
  • If the goods are for your private use or for re-sale.

If you are sending a gift from Spain to the UK, import VAT typically only applies to goods whose value is over £39, or the equivalent in Euros. Customs Duty is due only if the value of the goods cost over £135.

The UK government website states that in order to qualify as a gift, a customs declaration must be completed correctly and the gift must be sent from a private person outside the UK to a private person(s) in the UK. This also applies to items where there is no commercial or trade element and the gift has not been paid for either directly or indirectly by anyone in the UK.

It also states that a gift is of an occasional nature only, for example, for a birthday or anniversary.

The customs declaration form includes sections which state what is inside the package, what material the item is made from, the size of the item and the monetary value of the item.

Similarly, when receiving items sent from the UK to Spain, senders will need to complete and attach a customs declaration form (CN22 or CN23), Letters, postcards and documents are usually exempt.

Residents in Spain will need to pay customs or VAT charges and a handling fee before they can claim the parcel. These charges will depend on the value of the item and whether it is a gift or not.

READ ALSO: Life in Spain: What’s cheaper and more expensive in 2021?

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GIBRALTAR

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spain has expelled four Royal Navy servicemen who crossed the Spain-Gibraltar border on foot three times in a single day while dressed in civilian clothing, with Spanish media claiming they were checking the porosity of the border.

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spanish police expelled four British soldiers from Spain on Monday night, removing them from the country and sending them back to Gibraltar after it emerged that the four Royal Navy personnel had entered Spain illegally while “posing as tourists”, as the Spanish press has reported.

The incident comes a week after the British Navy carried out military drills in the waters surrounding Gibraltar, the British overseas territory that Spain still claims sovereignty of, and amid the seemingly never-ending negotiations between Spain and the UK to finally settle a post-Brexit deal.

READ ALSO: Gibraltar Brexit deal ‘close’ as Brits crossing into Spain use fake bookings

The expulsions, now reported in the Spanish press by Europa Sur and confirmed to El Periódico de España by official sources, occurred after the four soldiers arrived in Gibraltar on a civilian flight and entered into Spain. They also had return tickets via Gibraltar.

They then reportedly passed themselves off as tourists and entered Spain on foot, staying at a four-star hotel in La Línea de la Concepción, the town in the Cádiz province of Andalusia that borders Gibraltar.

Stranger yet is that they crossed the border at La Línea on up to three occasions in the space of a few hours.

READ ALSO: What Brits need to know before crossing the border from Gibraltar to Spain

Spanish authorities detected their presence because two of the soldiers tried to return to Gibraltar at night.

At the border, Spanish police officers enquired as to the reason for their entry, to which the soldiers replied that they were on their way to work and brandished British military documentation.

The police decided that their entry into Spain had been irregular because they did not meet the Schengen Borders Code requirements demanded of non-EU citizens entering EU territory.

According to Europa Sur, Spanish police then asked the two soldiers to call their colleagues in the hotel in order to collect their luggage and return to Gibraltar, which took place at midnight on Monday 18th March.

The Spanish press has stated that it is common for soldiers to try to stay in Spanish territory by concealing their military status and entering while posing as tourists.

The motive for the soldiers’ presence, particularly their repeated trips across the border, remains unknown.

The military drills in the area seem to suggest that the soldiers may have taken part in or be due to take part in further exercises and wanted to enter as tourists.

Spanish media also suggests that they could have been testing the porosity of the border, though these claims remain unsubstantiated.

Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status still remains unresolved. The EU and UK government are now onto their 18th round of treaty negotiations after the framework agreement between London and Madrid made on New Year’s Eve 2020 essentially ‘fudged’ the border issue, leaving Gibraltar’s status within the Schengen area undefined.

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in late-2023 that “we are very, very close” to finalising a Brexit agreement.

“I would sign a deal with Britain over Gibraltar tomorrow,” Albares told journalists at the time. Yet no agreement was made, despite the Minister’s positivity, nor the appointment of former UK Prime Minister David Cameron as Foreign Secretary.

Albares’ comments came at a time when it was reported in the Spanish press that many UK nationals have been using fake hotel bookings in order to try and bypass the Schengen rules and trick their way through border checks.

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