Posting personal items to Norway

sztriki

Hi All,

I have some personal items with me of someone who moved back to Norway from the UK. Nothing of value, a couple of drwaings and a few Nintendo game cartridges. I did send a parcel of items there before and even though it was claimed at £0 value and as a gift they ended up having to pay for duty or VAT. Any idea how this can be avoided, I'm sure I'll need to fill in a form with the exact item and their import codes (one by one), but unsure what else is there, also Norway is not in the EU but in the EEA, etc...

I also had similar issues when I wanted to post a painting of mine on paper to Italy as a gift at £0 value, it created a whole palaver about "importing pieces of art" and getting permission from the ministry for importing, etc, so I guess my main question is how to make it straightforward and hassle free if I send something outside the UK that is not a business transaction/export but just a small box of personal stuff.

martindow

If you send this with a carrier such as DPD or Fedex they should be able to advise on the paperwork needed.  I'm surprised that you mention declaring the value at zero as it would then be sent uninsured.  On arrival customs would not accept zero and would estimate a value, that could well be very high, to calculate local VAT.