Russia Extends the €1,000 Duty-Free Limit on Parcels for Private Buyers Until 1 April 2024

1. What the extended threshold covers

The rule applies to express shipments and international mail — parcels with foreign goods that a postal operator or an express carrier delivers to a private person. Through 1 April 2024 such a parcel is released without payment of duties and taxes if its value does not exceed €1,000 and its weight does not exceed 31 kg.

The declaration for the parcel is filed on the individual's behalf by the postal operator or the express carrier. The same company accepts the shipment, processes it, carries it and delivers it. Your customer in Russia signs nothing and files nothing — which means they cannot correct anything either. The declaration is assembled from the documents that travel with your box.

Goods sent in international mail for personal use are released by customs before the duties and taxes are paid, so a parcel that stays within the limits normally moves without a payment step at all. The moment it steps outside them, the shipment enters a calculation procedure, and that is where the time is lost.

2. How the duty is calculated above the limit

If the parcel exceeds the limits, the duty is 15% of the amount above €1,000, but not less than €2 per kilogram of excess weight. Only the excess is charged, not the whole shipment — a point worth explaining to buyers who assume that one euro over the line makes the entire order dutiable.

Two examples make the arithmetic clear. A parcel worth €1,100 weighing 31 kg: the duty is charged on the €100 above the threshold and comes to €15. A parcel within the value limit but weighing 35 kg: the duty is charged on the 4 kg of excess weight and comes to €8. Weight here is the weight of the shipment as the carrier records it, packaging included — not the net weight of the product in your specification. If you plan an order right at the edge of 31 kg, the pallet wrap and the filler decide the outcome. Where a shipment consistently lands above the limits, it is usually cheaper and faster to move it as a commercial consignment with proper customs clearance instead of squeezing it into the parcel regime.

3. When customs stops treating your goods as personal use

The threshold is a personal-use allowance, not a universal duty-free quota. Whether a shipment qualifies is decided by customs, and three things are taken into account: the information in the passenger customs declaration and the documents accompanying the parcel; the nature and quantity of the goods; and how often goods are sent to the same person.

Each of the three is something you control from your side. The nature and quantity of the goods is your packing list: twenty identical items of one size read as a wholesale lot, however modest the invoice value. The frequency is your shipping schedule: weekly boxes to one address look like supply, not like shopping. And the accompanying documents are simply what you print and attach.

The most common way a duty-free parcel loses its status is not the price tag but the repeat: several shipments to the same recipient within a short period can be assessed together as a commercial supply, and then the €1,000 allowance no longer applies to any of them.

If a buyer's orders have grown into a steady flow, it is better to switch the format deliberately rather than wait for customs to do it for you. A commercial consignment means a contract, a commercial invoice and — for most consumer goods — permits obtained in advance, which is a separate track: see certification. It also means a different transport plan, since express parcels and consolidated air freight are booked and documented in different ways.

4. What your buyer in Russia will now ask you for

Expect requests that may look excessive for a parcel. They are not: your customer has no way to fix the declaration after the fact, so they will try to fix the source data — your paperwork.

• A real, itemised value. One line per article with the price actually paid. Gifts declared at a token value and samples declared at zero are exactly the entries that trigger questions.
• An accurate description of the goods. What it is, what it is made of, what it is for — not "goods", "parts" or a catalogue number that means nothing outside your ERP.
• Real gross weight. With packaging, as it will be weighed by the carrier.
• Complete recipient details. Full name, address, phone number, exactly as the buyer gave them to you.
• No consolidation of several orders into one box. Merging two customers' orders to save on freight puts the combined value against a single €1,000 allowance.

It is also worth agreeing in writing who pays the duty if the shipment exceeds the limits, and telling the buyer the value and weight before you dispatch. A charge that appears unannounced on delivery is the usual reason a parcel is refused at the door — and a refused parcel comes back to you at your cost.

5. What the exporter should do

1. Check where your typical order sits against €1,000 and 31 kg — by value and by gross weight, not by product weight.
2. Bring the invoice, the packing list and the shipping label into agreement: the same values, the same weights, the same descriptions in all three.
3. Fix the description of the goods in your templates so that it is readable to a stranger, and stop using internal article codes as the only identification.
4. Review your shipping schedule per recipient: if one address receives goods regularly, plan the switch to a commercial consignment yourself.
5. Tell the buyer in advance the declared value and weight of the shipment and who covers the duty on any excess.
6. For orders that are consistently above the limits, prepare the commercial set of documents and the permits before dispatch, not after the shipment has stopped at the border.

6. Frequently asked questions

Does the €1,000 allowance apply to each parcel or to each buyer?
It applies to the shipment released for personal use, but frequency of sending to the same person is one of the criteria customs uses. Several parcels to one recipient in a short period can be assessed together rather than separately.

The order is worth €1,100. Is duty charged on the whole amount?
No. Duty is charged on the excess only — on €100 in this case, which is €15 at 15%.

Our parcel is within €1,000 but weighs 35 kg. What happens?
Duty is charged on the excess weight: 4 kg at €2 per kg, which is €8.

Does my buyer have to file anything at customs?
No. The declaration for the parcel is filed by the postal operator or the express carrier, based on the documents you attach. That is why the accuracy of your invoice matters more than anything your buyer can do at their end.

Summary

Through 1 April 2024 parcels to private buyers in Russia remain free of duties and taxes within €1,000 and 31 kg, with duty on the excess above that: 15% of the value over the threshold, but not less than €2 per kilogram of excess weight. Nothing in the route changes for you, but the declared value, the gross weight and the description of the goods now decide whether your shipment is released or held. Keep the invoice, the packing list and the label consistent, and warn the buyer about the figures before dispatch. Request a consultation, and we will go through your specific shipment.

We can check how your shipment will be read at the Russian border — as a personal-use parcel or as a commercial import — and clear it under the right procedure.

Request a consultation