Åland and gifts

You may have to declare a gift arriving for you in Åland. To declare the gift, you need to know what the gift parcel contains. If you send a gift from Åland to mainland Finland, you must declare it.

Whether a gift has to be declared and whether import duties and taxes have to be paid for it depends e.g. on from where the gift arrives or where you are sending the gift.

Recipient of the gift (consignee)

You may have to declare a gift arriving for you in Åland. To declare the gift, you need to know the content of the gift consignment and its value. Ask the sender to provide this information before declaring the gift.

A gift transported by a postal operator must be declared within 20 days of the arrival of the consignment. The time to declare gifts delivered by other operators may be shorter.  If you don’t declare the consignment in time, it will be returned back to the sender. 

Your gift arrives in Åland from mainland Finland or from another EU country

The gift must be declared, if you receive a notice of arrival of a gift consignment to be declared. If the gift is worth more than 45 euros, you usually have to pay VAT and possible excise duty for it. You don’t have to pay any customs duty. 

Value added tax and excise duty are collected if the gift consignment contains alcohol, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars, pipe tobacco and loose cigarette tobacco. 

Value added tax is always collected when the gift contains

  • over 45 euros worth of perfumes or eau de toilette products
  • over 50 grams of perfumes
  • over 0.25 litres of eau de toilette products
  • over 45 euros worth of coffee, tea and their essences and extracts
  • over 500 grams of coffee
  • over 200 grams of coffee essence or extract
  • over 100 grams of tea
  • over 40 grams of tea essence or extract

Please note that receiving snus as a gift is prohibited

You can usually declare the gift in the Import Declaration Service for private persons or at Mariehamn Customs. Read the instructions on how to declare a gift.

Your gift arrives in Åland from outside the EU

You must declare the gift if you receive a notice of arrival of a gift consignment to be declared. Read about import duty amounts and restrictions on goods.

You can usually declare the gift in the Import Declaration Service for private persons or at Mariehamn Customs. Read the instructions on how to declare a gift.

Sender of the gift (consignor)

If you send a gift from Åland to mainland Finland, you must declare it on behalf of the gift recipient before sending it. If you send a gift from Åland to another EU country, you don’t need to declare it.

You send a gift from Åland to mainland Finland

You may have to declare a gift on behalf of the gift recipient before sending it. If the gift is worth more than 45 euros, you usually also have to pay VAT and possible excise duty for it. You don’t have to pay any customs duty. For the declaration, you need the gift recipient’s contact details and personal identity code.

You may also have to pay VAT on perfumes and eau de toilette products as well as on coffee and tea and their essences and extracts. If the gift contains alcohol or tobacco products, you must pay VAT and excise duty for it, regardless of the value of the gift.

You can usually declare the gift in the Import Declaration Service for private persons or at Mariehamn Customs. Read the instructions on how to declare a gift.

If you declared the gift yourself in the Import Declaracion Service for private persons, you have to show the decision on release to the postal operator or other transport company carrying the consignment. If you declared the gift in the Import Declaration Service for private persons, the decision on release will be available for 90 days in the section My declarations.

You send a gift from Åland to another EU country

You don’t need to declare the gift when you send it to another EU country.