Shipping from the UK to Germany: what your customer will actually pay in 2026

Germany is the UK's largest EU export market. Millions of parcels make the journey every year — from handmade goods and clothing to electronics and homeware. If you're a UK small business shipping to German customers, here's exactly what they'll be asked to pay when your parcel arrives.

The basics: what's changed since Brexit

Before January 2021, shipping from the UK to Germany was as straightforward as shipping domestically. No customs forms, no import charges, no surprises. Brexit changed all of that.

The UK is now a third country from Germany's perspective. Every parcel you send crosses an international customs border. That means customs declarations, potential import duty, and German VAT — all assessed on arrival unless you've arranged to handle them upfront.

Germany's VAT rate

Germany's standard VAT rate is 19%. This is applied to the total value of your shipment — product value plus shipping cost plus any import duty — when your parcel clears German customs.

For a £200 product with £12 shipping and 0% duty, your German customer faces a VAT bill of around £40 on delivery. That's on top of what they've already paid you.

Import duty: the good news

Under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), many standard goods exported from the UK to Germany attract 0% import duty — provided the goods meet the rules of origin requirements, meaning they were substantially made in the UK.

Common small business products that typically attract 0% duty include handmade goods, ceramics, candles, art, jewellery, and most clothing. If your products are genuinely UK-made, duty is often not an issue.

Some product categories do attract duty — certain textiles, footwear, and processed foods, with rates of up to ~12% for clothing and ~17% for footwear. If you're unsure about your product's duty rate, use the UK Government's Trade Tariff tool or run a calculation through ClearShip, which applies the correct duty rate automatically.

The €150 rules — updated for July 2026

The €150 customs-duty exemption is gone — the EU scrapped it on 1 July 2026. What €150 still governs is IOSS: for orders with an intrinsic value up to €150 (the goods alone, excluding shipping), German VAT can be collected at the point of sale — either by your platform (Etsy handles this automatically) or through the EU's IOSS scheme if you're registered. Sell that way and your customer pays nothing extra on delivery; the consignment instead carries a temporary flat customs duty of €3 per item until 1 July 2028, charged to the seller or platform, not the recipient.

Ship without IOSS and the picture changes at any value, not just above €150: German customs assesses 19% import VAT on arrival, Deutsche Post or DHL adds a handling fee, and standard tariff duty applies unless your goods are UK-originating and you claim TCA preference with a statement on origin, which keeps it at 0%. This is the arrangement that catches most UK sellers out.

A real example

A UK ceramics seller ships a set of handmade bowls worth £180 to a customer in Munich.

The customer paid £180 plus postage at checkout. They're now asked for another £45 before they can take delivery. If they weren't warned, this is the moment they consider refusing.

What you can do

Know the landed cost before you ship. ClearShip calculates the full landed cost for UK-to-Germany shipments in seconds — enter your product description, value, weight and destination, and you'll see exactly what your German customer will pay, broken down line by line.

Once you know the number, tell your customers. A simple note on your listing or product page — "German customers: import VAT of approximately 19% may be charged on delivery unless VAT was collected at checkout" — sets expectations and prevents refused deliveries.

One German rule with no UK equivalent: the Packaging Act (Verpackungsgesetz, or VerpackG). Any seller shipping B2C parcels into Germany — from the very first parcel, with no minimum volume — must register in the LUCID packaging register and license their packaging with a dual system (a scheme that funds the recycling of the boxes, filler and tape you ship) before selling. It's enforced with sale bans and fines, and marketplaces are obliged to block unregistered sellers. At small volumes it's more paperwork than cost, but it has to be done before your parcel goes, not after.

For high-volume Germany shipping, consider DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) — where you cover the charges upfront and build them into your price. It gives German customers the same experience as buying domestically and removes the main cause of delivery refusals.