Bringing goods into the UK for personal use

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Arriving in Great Britain

If you’re travelling to Great Britain (England, Wales or Scotland) from outside the UK, you can bring in a certain amount of goods without paying tax or duty. This is known as your personal allowance.

When you’re bringing in goods you must:

  • transport them yourself
  • use them yourself or give them away as a gift

If you go over your personal allowance

You must:

Your goods could be seized if you do not declare them.

You cannot combine your personal allowance with anyone else.

Alcohol allowance

How much you can bring depends on the type of alcohol. You can bring in both:

  • beer - 42 litres
  • wine (still) - 18 litres

You can also bring in either:

  • spirits and other liquors over 22% alcohol - 4 litres
  • alcoholic drinks up to 22% alcohol (not including beer or still wine) - 9 litres

Alcoholic drinks up to 22% alcohol include:

  • sparkling wine
  • fortified wine (for example port, sherry)
  • cider

You can split this last allowance. For example, you could bring 2 litres of spirits and 4.5 litres of fortified wine (both half of your allowance).

Example

If you bring in 19 litres of wine, you must pay tax and duty on all of it because you have gone over your 18 litre allowance for wine

Tobacco allowance

You can bring in one of the following:

  • 200 cigarettes
  • 100 cigarillos
  • 50 cigars
  • 250g tobacco
  • 200 sticks of tobacco for electronic heated tobacco devices

You can split this allowance - so you could bring in 100 cigarettes and 25 cigars (both half of your allowance).

Example

If you bring in 200 cigarettes and 50 cigars, you must pay tax and duty on both the cigarettes and the cigars because you have gone over your allowance in the tobacco category

Alcohol and tobacco allowances if you’re under 17

There are no personal allowances for tobacco or alcohol if you’re under 17. You can bring alcohol and tobacco to the UK for your own use but you must declare them before you arrive in the UK.

Allowance for other goods

You can bring in other goods worth up to £390 (or up to £270 if you arrive by private plane or boat).

If you go over your allowance you pay tax and duty on the total value of the goods, not just the value above the allowance.

You may have to pay import VAT and customs duty if you exceed your allowance.

Import VAT

You may have to pay import VAT on the total value of the goods plus duty. You pay this at the current UK VAT rate.

Declaring goods made or produced in the EU

You do not need to pay any tax or duties on personal goods you bring into Great Britain as long as they are within your personal allowances.

If the goods are over your allowances you will need to:

  • declare them
  • pay any customs duty due
  • pay any excise duty due (for tobacco or alcohol)
  • pay any import VAT due

When you declare your goods you need to declare each item you bought. When you declare your items, you may not need to pay customs duty on items where all the following are true:

  • they were grown or made in the EU using only EU ingredients or materials
  • you bought them in the EU
  • you are bringing them in from an EU country

If these are true, you can claim a zero rate of customs duty for each item. You must:

  • have evidence these are true for each item you claim these rates for
  • be able to show this evidence if asked by a Border Force officer

The level of evidence you need depends on the total value of all the items you claim these rates for.

If the total value is less than £1,000

If the total value of all the items you declare is less than £1,000 the evidence for each item can be:

  • a label or packaging showing it was grown or made in the EU
  • evidence it was hand-made or grown in the EU (for example, a document or written note from the person or business you bought it from)

A Border Force officer might ask to see this evidence. If you are unable to show this, you will have to pay any customs duty you owe.

If the total value is more than £1,000

If the total value of all the items you declare is over £1,000, you can claim a zero rate of customs duty if you can prove each item was grown or made in the EU.

This proof could be an invoice or document from the person or business you bought the items from which includes the:

  • item you are buying
  • place and date you bought it
  • ‘statement on origin’

The ‘statement on origin’ is formal wording from the person or business you bought the items from which confirms:

  • the material used to make the item was from the EU
  • their registered exporter number (if the total value of all the items you declare is over £5,500)

You could also prove that you know how the items were made in the EU by using documents or records which show the item meets the rules of origin. The ‘importer’s knowledge’ section of the proof of origin guide explains how you do this. This applies if you bring in (import) these items for either personal or commercial use.

A Border Force officer might ask to see this evidence. If you are unable to show this, you will have to pay any customs duty you owe.

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