Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart — Germany-bound envelopes and parcels are booked at our HSR Layout counter and handed to DTDC for the overseas leg. You will not find a price grid below. We hold no international card, so every German consignment is costed on its own weight, size and contents rather than against a number we would have to walk back later.
Germany applies the European Union’s common customs rules, which is the single most useful thing to understand before you pack: the tariff, the import formalities and the reliefs are set at EU level, and the German authority — Zoll — administers them. What Germany sets for itself is the tax rate. Import turnover tax runs at 19%, with a reduced 7% band that covers books and most foodstuffs.
The exemption for small parcels no longer exists. Since the EU withdrew it in July 2021, VAT is chargeable on imported goods from the first cent of declared value; only customs duty has a floor, and consignments below €150 in goods value are normally spared it. The one genuine relief left for personal traffic is the gift allowance: an occasional, non-commercial parcel between two private individuals worth up to €45 clears free of both duty and VAT. It has to be a real gift — you cannot label a sale as one and expect it to survive inspection.
Germany’s particular habit is the collection notice. Where an invoice is thin, missing or contradicts the box, Zoll does not guess: the recipient gets a card and must appear at the nearest Zollamt with identification and proof of value before the parcel is released. An invoice listing each article, its quantity and a defensible value is what prevents that. Address it the German way too — street name, then house number, then the five-digit postcode ahead of the town — and give us the recipient’s mobile number.
If an item sits on the edge of that line, ask before the tape goes on the carton.
Apostilled degrees, mark sheets, blocked-account correspondence and employment contracts for people moving to study or work in Germany. Envelopes are the easiest thing we book internationally — negligible value, an obvious description, and nothing for an officer to reassess.
Warm clothing, books, sealed snacks and factory-packed spice mixes, going to a hall of residence or a relative's flat. Where it genuinely is a present between two private people, say so and keep it inside the €45 relief; where it is worth more, declare the real figure and let it be assessed.
Components, tooling samples and spares from Bengaluru suppliers to German firms. These need an itemised commercial invoice, a description a classifier can work with, and the consignee's EORI number — we assemble that here rather than leave your buyer arguing it out with Zoll.
Because we have no international rate card to show. Our domestic prices are DTDC's published card and you can read every figure. Germany is different: send the weight, the box dimensions and a list of contents, and we will quote that shipment. A flat per-kilo number would be a guess dressed up as a rate.
We hold no verified transit record of our own for Germany, so we print none. The service you book carries its own commitment and we will tell you exactly what that is when we book it.
DTDC. We are an authorised DTDC booking partner, not a carrier — the consignment travels on a real DTDC air waybill through their overseas network and tracks at dtdc.com.
Possibly. Import VAT at 19% is due on the declared value of goods, and duty as well if the consignment exceeds €150. A modest personal gift under €45 between private individuals is relieved of both. We will not promise you a charge-free delivery, because the assessment is not ours to make.
Zoll asks the recipient to prove the value at a customs office. A screenshot of an order, a receipt or an invoice settles it; nothing to show means the officer sets a figure, and the parcel waits until it is paid. Declaring honestly at our counter is a great deal quicker.
Weight, dimensions and an honest list of what is inside. We will price it, prepare the invoice, and collect it free anywhere in the city.
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