Customs

From the 1st of July 2021 in Latvia, as in all European Union (EU) Member States, an import customs declaration must be submitted for all postal items received from countries outside the EU, and value added tax on the goods must be paid.

To facilitate the customs clearance process quickly and easily Latvijas Pasts offers a new customs clearance application. The link is unique and contains information for declaring a specific item. Customer will receive a text message with the unique link of the item atmuito.pasts.lv/uniqueitemlink or a printed notification with a link and a scannable QR code.

Items with a value of more than 150 € or containing excise goods or goods subject to restrictions require power of attorney for customs clearance. The power of attorney can be either signed with the Smart-ID qualified signature in the app or filled out and signed electronically or written by hand and added in the app as a document  (to download the power of attorney).

 

More information on customs services:

Customer Centre of Latvijas Pasts +371 27008001, +371 67008001, pastabrokeris@pasts.lv

 

Customs clearance in a few clicks

 

Pricelist

Postal item value  

atmuito.pasts.lv app 
EUR (incl. VAT)

 Post office
EUR (incl. VAT) 

Customs brokerage support

Up to 150 €,
no excise goods

 1.28 € 

5.99 € 

-

Above 150 € to 1000 €,
no excise goods

5.99 € 

-

customs brokerage support, if necessary

Above 1000 €,
excise goods and goods subject to restrictions

30.25 € 

-

customs brokerage support

*The post office will apply a commission fee of 0.90 

Receipt

Small-sized ordinary items that have been cleared through the customs will be delivered in the mailbox, but for larger items that cannot be placed in the mailbox we will send a text message as soon as they are at the post office.

Request custom clearance of an item through Latvijas Pasts within 2 days and receive the item as quickly as possible!

With a contract

Customs clearance of postal items instead of the customer
We offer the companies, which are agreement customers of Latvijas Pasts, to settle all the customs formalities instead of them.

If the customer chooses this service, any of postal items addressed to it and subject to customs formalities are sorted at the Riga Sorting Complex into a separate flow. Latvijas Pasts does customs clearance for these items immediately and delivers them to the customer as usual in accordance with the agreement on delivery of postal items – to a post office, with a delivery to the office or other place of delivery selected by the customer.

All payments should be made by the customer once a month, receiving summary in one invoice of Latvijas Pasts.

 

The payment for customs clearance of a postal item for legal persons consists of: 

1. Customs taxes and duties – depending on the postal item value and content (the customs tax is applied to postal items with value above 150 EUR)

2. Fee for postal item processing at Latvijas Pasts

Type of customs declaration

EUR, (incl. VAT)

In case of H7 or a specially simplified declaration (almost all postal items with value up to 150 EUR, except for postal items containing, for example, medicines, drones, weapons and other goods which cannot be declared using a simplified procedure)

1.28 € 

In case of H6 or a simplified declaration (for portal items with value of goods exceeding 150 EUR, and also postal items containing, for example, medicines, drones, weapons and other goods which cannot be declared using a simplified procedure)

5.99 € 

In case of a standard or full import declaration (the goods which cannot be declared in accordance with a simplified procedure or a special customs procedure should be applied, for example, re-importation of goods, return of goods after warranty/paid repair, etc.)

 

For each additional HS code of goods for a standard declaration   

30.25 € (the price includes 3 HS codes of goods)

 

3.63 

 

Customers of Latvijas Pasts may apply for customs clearance of postal items by concluding an agreement electronically on the self-service website My Mail by activating the Customs clearance service box in section Agreement services of their existing agreement on postal services.

Customers of Latvijas Pasts and Express mail may apply for the service also by contacting the Service Sales Division:  +371 67008002, uznemumiem@pasts.lv

TAX is included in the price

VAT paid at the time of purchase

When purchasing goods in online stores and on online platforms registered in countries outside the European Union (EU), value added tax (VAT) can be paid at the time of purchase, if the seller is registered in the EU special sales scheme IOSS *.

IOSS simplifies the fulfilment of VAT obligations: the purchase is subject to the VAT rate of the recipient country, the calculated VAT is paid at the time of purchase, the import customs declaration is submitted by the postal operator and the buyer receives an already cleared postal item. The IOSS scheme can be applied if the total value of the goods does not exceed € 150 and these are not excise goods.

Upon receipt of IOSS postal items, Latvijas Pasts shall submit an import customs declaration regarding them, indicating the IOSS number included in the electronic data of the postal item. The State Revenue Service checks the IOSS number. In cases where the seller has indicated it incorrectly or it has been recognised as invalid, the postal item must be cleared by the consignee as any postal item subject to customs clearance – an import customs declaration must be submitted and VAT must be paid.

* Import One Stop Shop

Customs clearance of gifts

How to do quick and easy customs clearance for your gifts from countries outside the European Union

Remember that the gifts sent from counties outside the European Union should be declared at the customs by submitting an import customs declaration regardless of the value of the goods in the postal item – this procedure has been in place in the European Union since 1 July 2021.

A non-commercial postal item – a gift – is:

  • the postal item, which is sent by a natural person from a country, which is not a member state of the European Union, to other natural person in a member state of the European Union, and this has not been a transaction (purchase) between these two persons;
  • the postal item contains goods solely for personal use of the recipient or his/her family members, and their properties and amount do not evidence of commercial intent.

To do customs clearance quickly and easily, it is important that the sender of the gift specifies detailed information about the content of the postal item – the name, weight and value of each product. Just the name – gift or souvenir – is not considered a detailed description, because it does not provide information about the content of the postal item.

If the information specified about the postal item is incomplete, clarifying information will be requested. The type of postal item – gift – and its content may only be confirmed by the sender of the postal item.

In this case, the customs declaration should be accompanied by the e-mail, where the sender confirms that the postal item is a gift and specifies its content – description of the goods.

An import customs declaration should be submitted about all the gifts, but taxes are applied considering the value of the gift:

  • no tax is applied up to 45 euro,
  • VAT (21%) is applied from 45.01 euro to 150 euro,
  • both VAT and customs duty are applied above 150 euro
    • the customs duty rate is 2.5 % if the gift value does not exceed 700 euro
    • the standard rate applies to the customs duty if the gift value exceeds 700 euro

Quick customs clearance of gifts can be done in the electronic tool of Latvijas Pasts atmuito.pasts.lv having received a unique link by SMS or printed invitation with a QR code.

Customs clearance for gifts with a value up to 150 euro can be done at the post office. Customs specialists of Latvijas Pasts will help to do customs clearance for gifts of higher value – detailed information: Customer Centre of Latvijas Pasts +371 27008001, +371 67008001, pastabrokeris@pasts.lv.

Customs clearance of goods originating in Russia and Belarus

In order to ensure compliance with the European Union regulations on restrictive measures in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to prevent the circulation of goods subject to sanctions in postal items, Latvijas Pasts has completely discontinued the clearance service for goods and items originating in Russia and Belarus.

The restrictive measures in the European Union (EU) regulations are aimed at Russia and Belarus to weaken Russia's economic base, denying it access to critical technologies and markets and severely limiting its military abilities.

According to the EU sanctions, any person, entity or body shall be prohibited from selling, supplying, transferring or exporting, directly or indirectly, a number of consumer goods, the list of which is updated on regular basis. The ban applies to both companies and individuals. Latvijas Pasts has therefore completely discontinued its customs clearance service for goods and shipments originating in Russia and Belarus.

As before, customers remain responsible for their own compliance with EU sanctions - and authorised goods and shipments can be cleared individually through the State Revenue Service's EDS system.