Questions frequently asked by private persons
This is our FAQ page.
You can browse the most popular topics or write your question in the field below.
Ordering goods online
Your parcel may be stuck due to Posti’s handling fee. Please visit the Posti website and check.
Declare the consignment in the Import Declaration Service for private persons. The most convenient way to clear it is through online clearance: Customs clearance of a consignment after delivery
No. A private person is not allowed to obtain or receive by mail, as a goods shipment or by any other means from outside Finland tobacco products, electronic cigarettes or nicotine liquids ordered from a trader by means of distance communication.
Read more: Ordering tobacco products online
If you do not know or you cannot find out the contents of the postal consignment even from its sender, you can make a forwarding agreement with Posti, in which case Posti takes care of the customs clearance. Posti’s service is subject to a charge. You can contact Posti on 020 451 5900 or huolinta(at)posti.com.
Please note that Customs will not find out the contents of consignments at the request of customers.
Read more: Posti, Customs and online purchases
Import Declaration for private persons
Declare the gift consignment in the Import Declaration Service for private persons. Choose that you wish to declare a gift sent by a private person. For the declaration, you’ll need to know the content and value of the gift, and you’ll need the notice of arrival.
Fill in a customs clearance for each notice of arrival. You can only clear the goods of one notice of arrival with one customs clearance.
Example: If you have three notices of arrival, fill in three customs clearances.
The Import Declaration Service for private persons works best with Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
If the customs clearance was done on your behalf, ask your representative for the customs clearance decision. If you declared the goods yourself in the Import Declaration Service for private persons, your declarations from the last 90 days are available for you in the service. Please log in to the service and view your declarations by selecting “My declarations”.
As a private person, you are responsible for keeping a file of the customs clearance documents for the current year and for the three years following the customs clearance. You may be asked to present these documents to Customs.
Private persons are not required to enclose the customs clearance decision when submitting an application for a revised decision https://tulli.fi/en/private-persons/appealing-against-a-customs-clearance-decision/how-do-i-make-a-claim if the customs clearance was completed in the Import Declaration Service for private persons on 11 February 2020 or later.
Gift consignments
Declare the consignment in the Import Declaration Service for private persons. The most convenient way to clear it is through online clearance: Customs clearance of a consignment after delivery
Ask the sender for an account of the content and value of the gift consignment.
Read more: Clearing gifts through Customs
Goods that arrive from outside of the customs and fiscal territory of the EU, or from the EU’s customs territory but from outside of its fiscal territory, are usually to be cleared through Customs. As a consignee, you always have to clear any gift worth over 45 euros, since it is subject to tax. Read more about other gift consignments that need to be cleared through Customs. Even if the consignment is a gift, you must provide a receipt, invoice or other credible proof for the customs clearance, so that the value of the gift can be confirmed.
Read more about declaring gifts through Customs.
For declaring your gift, you need the following:
- arrival notification from the transport company
- information on the gift and its value, for example, a free-form account on the value or a receipt on the goods. (If necessary, ask the sender for the account in advance.)
- Customs may also wish to see other documents.
Travelling
If you live in Finland and you arrive in Finland from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) other than by air and your journey has lasted no more than 24 hours, you are not allowed to bring in tobacco products or nicotine liquids.
Exception: You are allowed to bring in tobacco products and nicotine liquids if it is apparent that you obtained them before you left Finland. For instance, text warnings in Finnish and Swedish can be taken as an indication that the product was bought in Finland.
To bring in tobacco products or nicotine liquids you must be aged 18 or over.
Read more: Bringing back tobacco products from travels
If the unit packets of tobacco products do not bear the required health warnings – text warnings in Finnish and Swedish and the picture warnings – you are not allowed to bring in more than 200 cigarettes to Finland even if you pay the taxes.
Read more: Bringing back tobacco products from travels
A private person is allowed to bring into Finland no more than a total of 1 000 grams of chewing tobacco, nasal tobacco and tobacco for oral use (snus) in one calendar day for his or her personal use. These products cannot be brought in as gifts.
To bring in tobacco products you must be aged 18 or over.
Read more: Bringing back tobacco products from travels
Customs control
Customs supervises and controls arriving and departing goods and travellers. Customs supervises the compliance with time limits concerning imports of tobacco products and nicotine liquids in connection with other customs enforcement through control measures aimed the flows of vehicles and travellers in different traffic types.
Section 66 of the Tobacco Act provides for the time limits on imports of tobacco products and nicotine liquids by travellers from non-EEA countries. The time limits are implemented to prevent illegal trade in tobacco products, and to prevent the entry into the Finnish market of tobacco products that are in violation of the Tobacco Products Directive.
Read more: Bringing back tobacco products from travels
To carry out a customs inspection of a person does not require any evidence or suspicion of any offence. The selection is based on a risk assessment or other observation made by Customs.
According to a decision by the Parliamentary Ombudsman, stopping a person and discussing with him or her does not yet constitute a customs inspection.
Read more: Customs control
No, they won’t.
The radiation from Customs’ x-ray scanners has no effect on either foodstuffs or film materials.
Read more: Customs control
Customs controls alcohol brought in by travellers from within the EU and can inspect such alcohol. Even when you can take the alcohol products with you after the inspection, the inspection may lead to tax consideration. As of 1 January 2017, the tax consideration will be performed by the Tax Administration. When necessary, the Tax Administration may contact you, and you have the responsibility to account for the purpose of use of the alcohol products even after the import.
According to section 103 of the Act on Excise Duty, Customs has the right to detain excise products if there is any ambiguity about for example the liability to pay taxes, taxability, application of excise regulations or the purpose of import, or if there is some other justified reason for detaining the goods.
Excise duty is levied on products imported for some other purpose than a private person’s personal use. As of 1 January 2017, the Tax Administration is responsible for the taxation. If Customs has detained excise products you have brought in, wait for the Tax Administration to contact you.
Moving to or from Finland
You can bring in your removal goods to Finland free from customs duty and value added tax within 12 months after your move.
Read more: Moving to Finland from outside the EU customs and tax territory
You may, if your permanent residence has been outside the customs and fiscal territory of the EU for a continuous period of at least 12 months before moving to Finland, and the other conditions for exemption from customs duties and value added tax are met.
If you are moving from outside the EU to Finland, your permanent residence will have to have been outside the customs and fiscal territory of the EU for a continuous period of at least 12 months, then you can be granted exemption from customs duties and value added tax if the other conditions are met.
If you are moving from outside the EU to another EU country, you will have to clear your removal goods through customs in that country. Then, if you move from that EU country to Finland, your move takes place within the EU and your removal goods will not have to be cleared in Finland.
Read more: Moving to Finland from outside the EU customs and tax territory
Restrictions
Ask the Finnish Food Authority about the restrictions and regulations regarding the importation of pets.
Clear the pet through Customs when you enter the country. Present documents and the invoice for the pet in connection with the customs clearance. You can bring in the pet without paying duties or taxes as long as the value limit for imports by travellers is not exceeded. The value limit is 430 or 300 euros depending on which transport vehicle you use. If the value limit is exceeded, the amount of VAT payable is 24% of the purchase price plus transport costs and possible insurance costs. Read more about import duties and taxes.
The new plant health legislation restricts travellers from bringing in plants and plant products from outside the European Union without a phytosanitary certificate. The new legislation will take effect on 14 December.
A phytosanitary certificate is required for:
- seedlings, potted plants, greenery,
- scions, stems, tubers, rhizomes and similar propagated materials,
- seeds for planting,
- cut flowers and branches as well as
- fresh fruits, berries, vegetables and root vegetables.
Of fruits, only bananas, dates durians, pineapples and coconuts are exempted from the certificate requirement.
You will still need to check for possible import bans in the Finnish Food Authority’s Guide to Import Bans (in Finnish).
A phytosanitary certificate is not required for mushrooms, and it is therefore still permitted after 1 September 2019 to bring in a maximum of 10 kilogrammes for personal use without testing and radiation controls.
Further information can be found on the Finnish Food Authority’s webpage (in Finnish and Swedish).
Private persons are not allowed to bring fireworks to Finland from outside the EEA. The import of fireworks requires a licence, and the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes) does not grant licences to private persons. More information
- More information: Tukes
You must first check the CITES restrictions on clams. For more information, go to the website of the Finnish Environment Institute.
For personal use you can bring in, without veterinary border control, no more than 20 kg of dead clams intended to be eaten. You can also bring in stones, but corals are subject to CITES restrictions.
Please note that it’s your responsibility to find out what restrictions and provisions apply in your country of destination. Finnish Customs cannot give advice on restrictions that apply in other countries.
Contact us
The Customs Information Service offers advice from Monday to Friday 8 am–4 pm. Have a look at the FAQ or contact us with your question.
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