{"id":2834,"date":"2026-03-17T19:13:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T19:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.imperiumdeal.com\/utmutatok\/aliexpress-customs-vat-avoid-import-duty-taxes-smartly-2\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T19:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T19:13:05","slug":"aliexpress-customs-vat-avoid-import-duty-taxes-smartly-2","status":"publish","type":"utmutatok","link":"https:\/\/www.imperiumdeal.com\/en\/guides\/aliexpress-customs-vat-avoid-import-duty-taxes-smartly-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Order Smartly from AliExpress? Minimize Customs Duty and VAT!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h2>The Essence in 3 Sentences (Summary)<\/h2>\n<p>Many believe that ordering from China is now expensive due to EU customs duties and taxes, but this is a huge misconception. If you purchase under 150 Euros, AliExpress automatically collects your destination country&#8217;s tax (e.g., 19-27% VAT) at checkout, so you **don&#8217;t have to pay any extra taxes or customs duties** at the border. And if you choose **AliExpress Standard Shipping** or **Choice** shipping methods, your package will be delivered by local courier companies (e.g., DPD, InPost, DHL), allowing you to **avoid additional customs processing fees!**<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>You&#8217;ve probably heard the saying, &#8220;Don&#8217;t order from China, because you&#8217;ll pay much more due to customs and postal fees!&#8221; The truth is, this only applies to those unfamiliar with the unified system of the European Union. In this article, we&#8217;ll show you where the dreaded VAT has gone, why you generally don&#8217;t need to pay customs duties, and how you can 100% legally avoid local postal surcharges, no matter where you live in Europe.<\/p>\n<h2>The Secret of the &#8220;Invisible&#8221; Tax: Why You Don&#8217;t Notice You&#8217;re Paying?<\/h2>\n<p>A common misconception among shoppers is, &#8220;I&#8217;ve been ordering from Ali for years, but I&#8217;ve never paid VAT.&#8221; In reality, **you always pay tax on everything, you just might not be aware of it.**<\/p>\n<p>Since the summer of 2021, the old \u20ac22 customs-free limit has been abolished in the European Union. However, AliExpress has introduced a system called IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop). When you pay for a cable at checkout, AliExpress&#8217;s algorithm has already incorporated the VAT due for your country (which depends on your location) into that price. Since you pay this in advance, your package gets a green light at the border, and you won&#8217;t receive retrospective invoices from the customs office.<\/p>\n<h3>How much VAT do you pay on AliExpress in your country?<\/h3>\n<p>When you see &#8216;VAT included&#8217; on the product page, AliExpress calculates using the following rates for these destination countries:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hungary: <strong>27%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Croatia: <strong>25%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Greece: <strong>24%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Poland: <strong>23%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Italy: <strong>22%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Spain: <strong>21%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>France, Slovakia: <strong>20%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Germany: <strong>19%<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How to Avoid Postal Handling Fees<\/h2>\n<p>Even if Ali has handled the tax, there&#8217;s still a sneaky cost: the postal customs processing fee. Regardless of whether it&#8217;s Hungarian Post, German Deutsche Post, Spanish Correos, or Poczta Polska handling the delivery, almost every European national postal service charges a &#8216;customs processing fee&#8217; of 2-5 Euros (approx. 800 &#8211; 2000 HUF) to formalize this VAT-paid package. **How can you avoid this? By bypassing the Post Office!**<\/p>\n<p>When purchasing, exclusively choose these shipping methods:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>AliExpress Standard Shipping<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>AliExpress Saver Shipping<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Any product with a <strong>&#8220;Choice&#8221;<\/strong> logo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What happens then? AliExpress sends the package into the EU via a European distribution center (e.g., Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary). By the time the package arrives in your country, it is already considered an internal European package, and local delivery is handled by private courier companies (DPD, DHL, Express One, InPost, etc.). With these companies, **the handling fee is a flat 0 Euro \/ 0 Forint**. You simply collect the package from the courier or a parcel locker, and you&#8217;re done.<\/p>\n<h2>What About More Expensive Items Over 150 Euros?<\/h2>\n<p>If you buy a robot vacuum cleaner, phone, or 3D printer (exceeding the 150 Euro limit), the rules change across Europe. Here, customs duties may come into play (often 0% for electronics, but can be 5-10% for others), and AliExpress CANNOT collect VAT in advance via the IOSS system at checkout.<\/p>\n<p>In such cases, at the last step of payment, Ali seemingly offers a huge (19-27%) discount. **Beware, this is not a real promotion!** They simply deduct the VAT, which you will then have to pay in a lump sum upon the package&#8217;s arrival at the border (usually to the courier), along with the company&#8217;s own, often 15-20 Euro, customs processing fee.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Solution for Expensive Items: Look for an EU Warehouse!<\/strong><br \/> For higher-value items, always order with <em>&#8220;Ship from: Spain \/ Poland \/ Czech Republic \/ Germany \/ France&#8221;<\/em> options. For items coming from a European warehouse, the seller has already cleared the product through customs into the EU. You won&#8217;t be asked for VAT, customs duties, or handling fees retrospectively, and the package will be with you in a few days.<\/p>\n<h2>AliExpress Costs: The Current EU Reality<\/h2>\n<table class=\"k\u00f6lts\u00e9g-tablazat\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Where do you order from?<\/th>\n<th>Value Limit<\/th>\n<th>Where do you pay VAT?<\/th>\n<th>Do you pay Customs Duty?<\/th>\n<th>Handling Fee in Destination Country<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>From EU Warehouse<\/strong> (e.g., Spanish, Polish)<\/td>\n<td>Any amount<\/td>\n<td>Included in price<\/td>\n<td>No<\/td>\n<td><strong>0 (No fee)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>From China (<strong>Standard \/ Choice<\/strong> shipping)<\/td>\n<td>0 &#8211; 150 \u20ac<\/td>\n<td>To Ali at checkout<\/td>\n<td>No<\/td>\n<td><strong>0<\/strong> (Private courier delivers)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>From China (<strong>Super Economy \/ Untracked<\/strong>)<\/td>\n<td>0 &#8211; 150 \u20ac<\/td>\n<td>To Ali at checkout<\/td>\n<td>No<\/td>\n<td><strong>Yes (2-5 \u20ac)<\/strong> (Collected by national post)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>From China (Any shipping method)<\/td>\n<td>Over 150 \u20ac<\/td>\n<td>Retrospectively, to the courier!<\/td>\n<td>Yes (product-dependent)<\/td>\n<td>Courier company customs processing fee (15+ \u20ac)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<h3>What does &#8220;VAT included&#8221; mean on the product page?<\/h3>\n<p>It means that the price you see on the screen already includes your country&#8217;s official Value Added Tax. This additional amount will not appear as a surprise during payment, and you won&#8217;t receive any invoices for it later.<\/p>\n<h3>How can I be sure that my package is not delivered by the national post?<\/h3>\n<p>The most reliable indicator is the format of the tracking number. If the package number you receive after ordering consists purely of numbers, or starts with something like &#8220;LP&#8230;&#8221;, it will almost certainly be delivered by courier services with zero fees. If the number ends with your country&#8217;s letter code, or &#8216;CN&#8217; (e.g., UA123456789HU, &#8230;ES, &#8230;DE), it will unfortunately enter the postal network.<\/p>\n<h3>What happens if I don&#8217;t pay the postal handling fee?<\/h3>\n<p>If your local post office sends you a notification about a customs processing fee, and you don&#8217;t pay it within the specified deadline, the package will simply be returned to China (or destroyed) after a few days of storage. In such a case, you may also lose your money, because according to the AliExpress dispute system, the failure of delivery was due to your fault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2832,"template":"","meta":{"_jet_sm_ready_style":"","_jet_sm_style":"","_jet_sm_controls_values":"","_jet_sm_fonts_collection":"","_jet_sm_fonts_links":"","rank_math_title":"AliExpress Customs & VAT: Avoid Import Duty & Taxes Smartly","rank_math_description":"Order smart from AliExpress! Discover tips to avoid customs, VAT, import duties, and postal fees. Your guide to saving money when buying from China.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"AliExpress Customs VAT Duty","hasznos-title":"How to Order Smartly from AliExpress? Minimize Customs Duty and VAT!","hasznos-leiras":"","hasznos-link":""},"platform":[2034],"temakorok":[2063,2024],"class_list":["post-2834","utmutatok","type-utmutatok","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","platform-aliexpress-2","temakorok-customs-and-vat","temakorok-tips-and-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imperiumdeal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/utmutatok\/2834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imperiumdeal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/utmutatok"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imperiumdeal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/utmutatok"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imperiumdeal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imperiumdeal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"platform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imperiumdeal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/platform?post=2834"},{"taxonomy":"temakorok","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imperiumdeal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/temakorok?post=2834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}