From November 1, EU member states, including Poland, will start charging a handling fee of €2 per item in the customs declaration for parcels bought from online shops outside the Union. Head of the National Revenue Administration (KAS) Marcin Łoboda says this will further reduce the inflow of cheap parcels.
The fee is not limited to China, although most cheap parcels from platforms such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress come from there. It covers distance sales from any non-EU country. As Deputy Minister of Finance and Head of the National Revenue Administration Marcin Łoboda told PAP, the amount was set by the European Commission, and customs authorities will collect it.
How the fee is calculated
According to Łoboda, the fee will work similarly to the existing €3 flat-rate customs duty, which has applied since July 1. It is paid for each item in the customs declaration, not for the whole parcel. As the head of KAS previously told PAP, there is no value threshold: the fee also applies to goods worth more than €150, which do not qualify for the €3 duty.
On a page devoted to customs reform, the European Commission states that the fee is meant to cover the costs of customs supervision: data verification, risk analysis, and document and goods controls. It lists the amount as €2 from November 1, 2026. According to trade portals citing the Commission’s delegated act of September 21, the amount will be reviewed every two years. The fee will also have to be paid when a customer returns goods, as reported by, among others, advisers for sellers.
Revenue from the fee will go to national budgets. In an interview with PAP, Łoboda explained that the burden falls on companies selling and placing goods on the market, not on tens of millions of consumers, although costs may be passed on to buyers in prices.
Effects of the July duty
The head of KAS presented data following the introduction of the €3 duty. Since July, the number of parcel declarations in Poland has fallen by about 50%, and the number of goods items in those declarations by as much as about 75%. The decline is still visible in September, but it is smaller.
For comparison, in 2025 more than 26 million non-EU parcels containing almost 130 million different categories of goods were released for free circulation in Poland (KAS data).
„The EU handling fee will probably reduce the inflow of parcels further, but it will bring additional payments to the budget” — Marcin Łoboda said in an interview with PAP.
What it means for buyers in Poland
From November, each item in an order from a non-EU country will be charged a €2 fee (according to Interia, about PLN 8.80). For parcels up to €150, a €3 duty per item is added on top, making a total of €5 per item, plus VAT. For example, a T-shirt and a phone case are two items, so €10 in fees, while five T-shirts of the same type usually count as one item. The head of KAS points out that buying goods whose value is lower than the customs and tax charges will no longer pay off.
More expensive orders, such as electronics, will also pay the fee, but it will be a small fraction of the price. Those most affected will be people buying cheap trinkets in many items.
The €3 duty is to apply until July 1, 2028. The new EU Customs Code formally entered into force in September, and most of its provisions are to apply from 2027.
