Country specific information

🦄 A little bit of positivity for everyone :D

There are many countries which will add extra taxes onto goods coming into their country. There are many reasons behind this, but for you this is just an additional fee that will cost you money. Depending on your country, there are ways to avoid this. Using these methods may be against the law depending on your country, it is advised that you look into your country's laws before attempting this especially when it comes to porn, as the information below may be incorrect.

Undervaluing

Undervaluing is when the declared price is lower than the actual price you paid. This can be used to avoid paying import taxes.

For stores, see the ones marked with ★ in the list of shops.

For proxy and forwarding services see the proxy and forwarding services page. These are also marked with ★.

The declared value should obviously be lower than the tax threshold in your country. Read the information for your country on this page to find out what this is.

North America

United States

No tax unless a single package contains 200,000 yen (~$2000) worth of goods. Books and printed matter are generally duty free. Customs & Border Protection state that they check all packages valued at over $200 ($100 for gifts) to fill out necessary paperwork for processing; occasionally, this will result in duty being charged, even for packages under $2000. EMS and Airmail are the most likely to get hit by customs. If an item is sent via Fedex, then they may phone in order to clarify the declaration as Japanese companies have a tendency to simplify the materials into groups which are not accepted by their database.

Loli/underage is technically illegal, but customs do a poor job of screening illegal items.

Canada

If you're shopping for lewds, buy at your own risk. Unlike the US, customs tend to be very strict about checking international packages. Canada considers any pornographic material that depicts characters under 18 to be CP – this includes both loli (a Canadian from /jp/'s Onahole threads went to court for importing a loli hole) and material that isn't technically loli but that depicts ambiguously underage characters. Customs additionally have broad powers to seize pornography of all types deemed to be "obscene", even if said pornography is freely available domestically.

Taxes technically must be paid on anything marked over CAD$20 ($60 for gifts), but it's possible that you may avoid tax so long as there is no individual item in the package valued at over $10K. RSAL tends to be the most successful option for missing customs, even with high value packages (+200K Yen), whereas items sent through private couriers are virtually guaranteed to be taxed. Shipping costs are not taken into account when determining whether or not to tax something, though proxy fees and any domestic shipping within Japan are. If your package does get caught by customs, then you just have to pay the mailman in any way you want.

SAL shipments are no longer tracked by Canada Post [1]. The item will still be traceable through Japan Post or some third party trackers after it has left Japan.

Mexico

There is no need to undervalue, you will not be taxed if your package is equal or less than USD300 when using EMS. You can read more here(section 3.7.1). DHL and FedEx will tax you when the value of the package is over USD50 and will open your package. If you send your package via EMS, then it will take a minimum of seven days to get to you. Porn and loli will get to you perfectly fine.

South America

Argentina

There is a limit of five purchases per year through courier mail, and no purchases limit using state mail/EMS, though Correo Argentino won't send your package home if it's heavier than 2kg, more expensive than USD $200, or the box is too big. You can pick it up at the distribution centre for your area, instead. Packages over USD $999 and 20kgs require importation permits. You can't buy more than 3 of the same item at a time.

Taxes are 50% of the total cost of items + shipping. Every single package is retained by customs so don't count on avoiding taxes. Additionally, you have to pay an extra ARS $120 fee per package under the excuse of "management costs", so buying in bulk is a good idea. There is a tax exemption of USD $25, applied only to your first package of the year. Use it wisely.

Tax declaration and payments aren't in-person so undervaluing might work, just be sure to keep it believable and ask the declared price to the seller so there are no discrepancies. You need an AFIP's Clave Fiscal level 3 to declare your taxes. Gifts pay taxes too. Books don't pay taxes and loli is legal.

Be warned that Correo Argentino is known to lose and steal packages so order without tracking at your own risk. Also, be prepared to wait a long time for your stuff to arrive since mail services are saturated as hell, EMS is pretty much useless.

It is advisable that you track your package every single day, and bother Correo Argentino to send you your telegram. If for some reason they fucked up and you didn't get it, nobody will care and your package will be sent back to origin without notice.

Brazil

Brazil has a 60% import tax for international mail shipments. Depending on your State (i.e. Minas Gerais), you will also pay ICMS (sales tax), which may go as high as 18%. As from 2015, all taxed shipments will also pay a R$ 12,00 (roughly USD 3.50) custody tax to the Correios (post office). Some items, like books/printed stuff have constitucional immunity to taxes (although that is sometimes ignored, and you will have to resort to the Judiciary). Also, if you use your credit card or paypal in an international purchase, you will pay 6,38% IOF. This comes in your credit card bill and is completely unavoidable.

The Receita Federal (Brazil's IRS) has a no tax rule with the following requirements: a) the item must be shipped from a physical person to a physical person (no legal entities like stores or companies); b) the item must be a gift; c) the item must be valued under USD 50.00. With a lawsuit, you MAY get this limited set as high as USD 100.00, due to old legislation that the Receita Federal ignores. Asking the store to undervalue the item below USD 50.00, marking the package as a gift and signing customs form as a physical person, avoiding any store labels, will greatly help at avoiding taxes. Be aware, though, that officers have legal powers to ignore the declared value and estimate one, and all packages are x-rayed. Ordering an iphone and marking it as USD 50.00 will most certainly go wrong.

There are 3 customs offices for shipped items: Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. São Paulo handles couriers (DHL, EMS etc), and tax probability is close to 100%. Only order by couriers if you are prepared to pay taxes. Rio de Janeiro handles bigger packages, and taxation of figures and games is very rare. Curitiba deals with small packages (anything labeled petit packet) and is much more aggressive, with taxation probability as high as 70%. There have been cases in Curitiba of taxation of tissue packages, towels, pillow covers and soaps. There's a famous case where a father mailed his daughter spare keys to his apartment from the US and Curitiba taxed it. They also like to overvalue items (in one case, I payed USD 11.00 for an amiibo and the officer estimated it at USD 30.00).

Obviously, you want to make your package go through Rio de Janeiro, and the most sure way of guaranteeing that is using SAL PARCEL. I personally have a history of almost 20 SAL PARCEL orders and only 1 got taxed, and even so the items were evaluated at a much lower price than what I actually payed. Registered SAL, Economy SAL, Air Mail and other methods will almost always go through Curitiba.

The customs office offers a tax revision service, but it takes months and almost never gets approved. If you think the taxation was illegal or the items were overvalued, it is highly recommended you pay it and try a refund with a lawsuit (you can go to the Juizado Especial Federal, where you don't even need a lawyer).

So, as a general rule: use SAL PARCEL always (AmiAmi is great for this), but always be prepared to pay 60% + R$ 12,00 taxes. Do NOT buy an item if you can't afford the tax. And, please, don't let items be returned; this only contributes to staining Brazil's images among international stores.

Chile

Packages above 7000 yen, excluding the shipping cost, will be taxed at approximately 30% of the total value of the package including shipping. The fee will be in USD. Therefore it is recommended to undervalue. Using EMS or SAL will make no difference to customs, so use whichever you want. EMS will take one week to arrive, SAL will take two to three. There are no problems with loli and it is rare for porn to be caught.

Peru

Custom taxes are 12%. These don't apply unless a single product is valued 200$ or more. Books and other printed matter seem to be immune to taxes.

Undervalue if neccesary.

European Union

This section is regarding imports from outside the EU. Imports from other EU counties are exempt from import taxes. VAT is still applicable but is almost certainly included in the item's listed price.

Austria

In Austria, the following fees apply:

EUSt: Import tax: 10% for books, otherwise 20% of the shipments' total value, including shipping costs and customs tax if applicable. Applies to everything equal to or above a total value of 22€. Items below that go free.

Customs tax: May apply if the total value is 150€ or greater. Various rates apply depending on the nature of the content with some items being exempt altogether. Some of the rates for stuff above the 150€ threshold: Figures: 4.7% (TARIC 9503 00 35), textiles: 8% for anything with cotton or polyester (TARIC 5210*, 5407*, 5408*), 6.9% - 7.5% for anything made of high quality silk and 3% for anything made of lower quality noil silk (TARIC 5007*). 3.7% for the stuffing (TARIC 9404 90 90). Books like Manga or magazines are exempt from this (TARIC 4901*, 4902*), as are non-blank optical media like CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays (TARIC 8523 49*). As said above, the EUSt applies to the shipments' total value including the customs tax, similar to Germany!

Inpection fee: 10€ flat. Applies to each and every package that is being inspected by customs when the "Post.at" is handling logistics, unless the package is found to be exempt from both EuST and customs tax. This applies to SAL and EMS packages, but not to DHL, UPS or Fedex. If a package is misdeclared and you're asked to show a proof of purchase indicating the contents' value, the cost for this re-evaluation is included in those 10€, as long as you don't delay the process by too much - usually the limit is 3 weeks without any extra charge. You may provide the proof of purchase via eMail.

Grand total: Say you import a figure worth 300€ using SAL or EMS for shipping. 4.7% customs tax apply, so do the EUSt and the inspection fee. The total cost for customs would amount to: ((300 + 300 × 0.047) × 0.2) + 10 = 72,82€. So that figure would set you back 372,82€ in total.

Counterfeits: Will be destroyed without any reimbursement if detected.

Loli is legal (§ 207a StGB), as long as the depiction isn't "so close to reality that it might be mistaken for it". There are no known rulings based on this paragraph when related to Manga, Anime or Anime figures as of 2017.

Note that if you're not at home when receiving a registered SAL or EMS package, you will need to present your ID upon pickup at the post office, and said ID will be scanned and OCR'ed. The following extracted data will be retained on a central server for a duration of 6 months: Name, type of ID, ID number, ID issuer and date of birth. The data will be linked to the shipment. See here.

Trying to avoid customs altogether isn't likely to work with EMS packages, you might want to try SAL for that.

Finland

VAT is added to packages over 22€ in value (shipping etc. included), which is 24% for pretty much everything except notably 10% for books, including manga. If the VAT is less than 5€, it's ignored. Possible additional costs of unknown quantity for packages over 150€ in value. Finding the amount out beforehand is difficult, but it's usually less than 10% of the package's value. If your package gets caught in customs, you just fill in the info online, pay, and wait until they send it off on it's way again. EMS has a very high chance of getting caught by customs, with registered mail having a pretty good chance as well.

Loli is legal.

France

Taxes work basically the same way as the other EU states: 20% VAT on the total value (items + shipping + assurance + customs) from 45€ and up if marked as gift or 1€ otherwise. Customs fees are applicable from 150€ up: 0.8% to 4.7% on figures and models, 12% on clothing, 3.5% on DVDs and Blurays, and 0% on books and vidya.

EMS and private services have a very high interception rate if not 100%. If choosing those, just assume you're going to pay the aforementionned fees and taxes plus the carrier's service fee (between 10 to 25€) when receiving your parcel. For the rest (SAL, Airmail, etc), you'll be fine most of the time but the bigger the order the higher the chance of getting caught. Customs have more incentive opening parcels that are going to be worth more for them or that look suspicious, especially if there are only 11 employees for 12000 parcels coming in every day.

Note: SAL is currently unavailable for an indefinite amount of time.

Loli is technically illegal (Art. 227-23 of the Penal Code) but the viewing and distribution of artistic works, regardless of the content, isn't.

Germany

Germany will tax packages at the following rate:

EuST: Is calculated for every package with value+shipping above 22€. It's usually a flat 19% although EuST for printed matter is 7%.

Tax: Based on the type of stuff you are importing, usually 4.5% for figures. It's calculated if value+shipping is above 150€. If you have to pay taxes, you have to add EuST in.

Package value+shipping = 25€ --> You only pay a 19% EuST --> 25*0.19 = 4.75€. Package value = 160€, Shipping = 20€ --> You have to pay additional taxes, if you are buying figures you are at 4.5% --> 160*0.045 = 7.2€ --> EuST is calculated on top of it, so additional 19% --> (160+20+7.2) * 0,19 + 7.2 = 42,77€ tax+EuST.

If a package isn't labeled correctly (i.e. shipping cost missing, suspected for undervaluing), you'll have to go to your customs office, show a proof of purchase and pay. There is an option to send in the proof per mail and let DHL handle the rest, but since 2015, this costs 28,50€ + the taxes you have to pay.

Using SAL or Airmail will normally get through if the package is undervalued to ~2000 yen. SAL parcel most of the time gets caught, same with EMS, but this depends on your customs office. Using USAL to sneak past customs does not seem to work if the package is not undervalued. Keep in mind that RSAL is not available anymore if you're ordering from Japan.

Shipping also gets added to the value and included for taxes. So if your package costs 20€ + 30€ shipping, you'll have to pay 9,50€ taxes. EMS and DHL packages always include shipping costs on the customs declaration, SAL and Airmail usually don't.

Furthermore, you will only be taxed if the amount would be greater than 5€, which means anything lower than 27€ won't be taxed. For printed matter, this would be 70€.

German customs use their own exchange rate for calculating, which is changed at the beginning of each month. The current exchange rate can be found here.

Loli is legal. (§ 184b, more info)

Hungary

Packages above 22€ will be subjected to 27% VAT and an extra customs fee which varies. If marked as a gift, the threshold will increase to 45€. Shipping fees are not included. If you do not undervalue then you will need to email a specific document and then pay the postman at your door, the post office will inform you of the procedure in detail. Using EMS or SAL makes no difference in whether or not customs will charge you, so feel free to use whichever. Loli seems to be fine, even if opened at customs.

Italy

EMS is usually spotted at customs and charged 22% import tax, there is also a 5€ fixed fee. You will pay the postman when the package is delivered. It is therefore recommended to undervalue your package. SAL may be able to help, but this is not guaranteed - it seems to be quite random as to whether or not your parcel will be hit. Porn and loli items are fine to ship.

Latvia

Latvia will charge at 21% of the value of the package as long as the value is over 23.5€. However undervaluing seems to work very well no matter what type of delivery you use, so feel free to use EMS to get your package quicker.

Netherlands

Packages under 22€ are exempt from VAT, those between 22€ and 150€ are exempt from tariff duty but VAT of 21% will have to be paid. Packages above 150€ will have an addition 4.7% tariff duty. You also have to pay clearance charges, these are 17.50€ for packages shipped by EMS and 13.50€ for packages shipped by other methods. Usually you will just be able to pay the postman with cash in order to receive your package. Undervaluing will help avoid this but if they suspect it's not the actual price, they'll send a letter saying they don't know the price. Just send them the actual invoice (Paypal invoice works), with the actual price on it. You'll get taxed for that price, but you won't get into trouble for committing fraud. If you are willing to risk it, you could try to change the Paypal invoice, but this is not recommended. It is better to just pay the tax once as getting caught doesn't mean your next packages are sure to get caught, so continuing to undervalue will still help. Customs rarely open parcels, so it seems porn and loli items are fine.

Poland

All packages valued over 22€ should be charged with 23% VAT. All packages valued over 150€ should be charged with 23% VAT and customs fees (exactly which fees they use is anyone's guess - you may be looking at fees on toys, art, scale, non-scale, RC models, etc. - there is no way to contest incorrect fees unless you want your package to be returned to sender in the meantime). There are also handling fees, but they are negligible and will usually be below 2€ in total. The VAT and customs fees will be calculated from the total value including shipping costs. VAT for books is actually only 8%, but no one cares, you're gonna pay 23% anyway. That is, if your package gets caught - this depends on the shipping method (surface mail and USAL have the lowest chance to be caught with EMS being basically 100%), the declared value (packages valued over 22€ have a higher chance to be caught), the forwarding and distribution department your package ended up in (there are five) and how lazy the customs people are that day.

Even packages valued under 22€ may be held in customs. In this case, you will receive a letter asking you to declare the contents of the package, their value (if a translated invoice is not available they seem to favor screenshots of the website and payment confirmation documents - you will need to send both), intended purpose (sale or personal use), your PESEL and delivery address. This can be done by email. VAT and fees are paid to the mailman upon delivery. In some cases you will need your ID to confirm your identity. You might not be notified that a package valued over 22€ is in customs - if the customs declaration is complete and not suspicious, or it was inspected by a customs officer, it will just get delivered to your door and you will have to pay the VAT and fees to the mailman. In reality, evading VAT/customs fees is highly dependent in which region you live, with some regions taxing pretty much every single package, and some rarely if at all.

On evading VAT and customs fees: The customs office can open any and all packages, but they're generally busy with large transports, so most packages are processed by Polish Post employees. They will not open packages unless they have a good reason to believe the material inside is hazardous or law-breaking (they will call for a customs officer in those cases), unless the package has been considerably damaged, or it's getting taxed and they don't know how to translate the list of goods from the customs declaration (even a collectible figure may be ambiguous to them). Use this to your advantage as you don't need to declare the specific name of the item. It is possible to send them shooped website screenshots and Paypal payment screenshots. The more stuff is written in moonspeak on them the better your chances are. The important part is to know what value was declared by the sender. A difference of ~1k yen will not be suspicious, but if you declare 10k less than the sender they might call for a customs officer to inspect the package. Remember that VAT evasion is a crime - if you get caught, blame /v/.

2D loli is grey area (more info), so far there has been no "guilty" verdicts for purely fictional drawings.

Spain

All packages over 22€ should be charged with 21% VAT, including the cost of shipping. There will also be a transaction fee of between 15-25€ as a result. If the package's value is about 22€ but below 150€ then you are able to pay the courier or go to a post office to receive your package. However, if the value is above 150€ then you will need to send an invoice to customs and wait for them to tell you how much you need to pay, which will be paid by bank transfer and should take around a week. EMS is very likely to get caught by customs which will add a 1-4 week delay, while SAL shipments which are under 2kg are very rarely caught. It is recommended to undervalue using one of the above shops. Porn and loli should be fine to ship to Spain.

Sweden

VAT (moms) is 25% on item(s), shipping and insurance cost except on food (12%) and printed matter (6%).

VAT is paid on everything over 300 SEK total and over 500 SEK total if marked as gift. Import tax (tull) is paid on over 1500 SEK total. However small packages usually get through no matter value (for example 1-2 Blu-ray(s)) and bigger packages somewhat rarely get taxed no matter the value or if it's marked as gift (for example one figure ~0,75 kg, undervalued to 240 SEK total).

EMS is free from import declaration fee (PostNord is handling EMS). Import declaration fee is 125 SEK for PostNord on anything that isn't EMS, 145 SEK for FedEx and ~60 SEK for DHL.

Note: Starting March 1st 2018 every single package from outside the European economic area will be subjected to an additional 75 SEK fee (125 SEK if package value exceeds 1500 SEK) paid to PostNord, including packages going directly to your mailbox and packages marked as gifts. When your packages arrive they will hold them hostage until you have payed this extra fee.

United Kingdom

For items coming from outside the EU, you will pay VAT of 20% on anything that is over £15 or £39 if it is labelled as a gift. Additionally, you will have to pay customs duty if the value exceeds £135. The percentage for this depends on what it is you are importing. If you receive a charge then you will also pay an additional admin fee of £8 if the package goes through the Royal Mail or £13.50 if it goes through Parcelforce. SAL Small Packet and Air Small Packet go through Royal Mail whereas EMS and SAL Parcel go through Parcelforce.

Strictly speaking, the cost of shipping should be included in the VAT as well as used for the tax-free allowances/duty, but this is normally only done if the shipping cost is immediately visible on the document attached to the parcel. Most stores only print the value of the goods inside on the first sheet and print the cost of shipping on a separate, enclosed sheet, which is very rarely checked, so shipping fees are generally ignored.

Some items, like books, are exempt from VAT, so you will not be taxed, regardless of their value.

In the event that you are hit by customs with either Parcelforce or Royal Mail, they will hold the package at the local depot and send you a letter. You can then either pay the fee online and have it delivered the next day, or take the letter to the depot, pay in person and immediately receive it. For Parcelforce, if tracking says that it has arrived at the local depot then you can go to the depot without having received a letter. You can give your postcode and pay customs immediately, which is usually faster as Parcelforce's letter can take days to arrive after the package arrives at the depot. At this stage you can also pay via phone without the customs reference number by speaking to someone from their customer support team. For Royal Mail, if your tracking shows up as "Held with fee to pay" you can expect a fee to pay card to arrive in a day or two, which you can either pay online or in person.

If you send your package by SAL Small Packet or Air Small Packet then there is a higher chance of it missing customs.

While EMS should in theory be much faster it will make it significantly more likely, if not guaranteed to be hit by customs, so it might end up remaining there for such a long time that SAL Small Packet or Air Small Packet would have been faster.

Other

Australia

As of 1st July 2018 all online purchases will be taxed the 10% GST on top of both product cost and shipping cost. See the List_of_shops and choose a retailer that undervalues to avoid the tax. Currently most major stores are incorporating the GST for all Australian orders. All packages over $1000 will be taxed 10% GST as well as a processing fee AND duty rates depending on the type of item. A savvy user should be able to get most imports duty free, however the other fees will remain. Loli material is ILLEGAL to import however possession laws vary by state/territory. Customs is pretty lazy though so the chances of anything being intercepted is slim, however if you are caught the chances of you avoiding jail time are even slimmer. You will need ID when picking up packages.

New Zealand

There are no taxes with any shipping service on imports under NZ$400, including shipping. Loli material (at least, figure/daki/doujin) has been imported without issue through RSAL, EMS and DHL. Undervaluing in foreign currencies before shipping here also works.

Russia

Packages above 1000€ or above 31kg will be subject to tax of 30%, this is very unlikely which means undervaluing is unnecessary. Customs do not seem to check packages, except to attach a paper if the weight of the package is listed incorrectly (happens all the time with AmiAmi orders) but it only results in slower delivery. As a result of this, porn and loli seem to be fine.

Turkey

While not part of the EU, it is part of the EU's customs union, so packages from EU countries will not be subject to any import taxes. Other packages above 22€ will mean that you will pay a customs duty of 20%. If your package contains books "for personal use", the limit is 150€, so mangafags can rejoice. It seems like customs inspections have gotten stricter since the exemption limit was lowered, so you'd be extremely lucky to avoid paying. You can pay your tax either to the postman or at the post office. It is therefore recommended to undervalue, however do not value a huge box at 10€ or customs may get suspicious. Loli status is currently unknown.