Sending packages to Italy?

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Gina

Yes, you end up paying lots of money for customs, unless you declare a very low value of those items you are posting. Remember you always have to add a pro-forma invoice. I suggest you ask for advice to a express courrier company.

I'm not moved by nationalism, but I have to say that it is not due to the italian bad service that you must pay taxes. Actually you should pay even to import items to the US or most of other countries around the world. It's a common rule, not a silly tradition!

cvillecmd

The Italian mail system and customs system is so bad. They should be ashamed! The package WILL be taxed whether or not they actually inspect it or not.

My Italian friends received a small baby outfit as a gift from baby Gap or target- something inexpensive like that- when they had a baby last year. Customs charged them â‚¬70 for the package. It wasn't even worth that, but it was a gift and they didn't want to look ungrateful so they were force to pay to get the gift so it did not get returned to the sender.

Anyway..... I am an American citizen living here in Italy now. The only way I have found around the system is by telling anyone who sends me something to follow these guidelines.

-Send via UPS, FedEx or DHL. It may be slightly more expensive but the items arrive quicker and have a slightly less chance of getting held up in customs. The US Postal Service no longer offer GROUND postage anyway, you have to send via air mail so it is going to cost a fortune anyway.

-On the customs form that the sender fills out when mailing the package write "PERSONAL ITEMS" in the description.

-Inside the box have nothing wrapped in paper, nothing with tags indicating it is new or that it is a gift.

-Customs will more than likely still end up opening it or just attaching a charge for it. When you get this notice in the mail, call the number on the form and tell them that you are a US citizen and that you are receiving personal items that belong to you and will be used by you. You will then have to fill out a form saying what is in the box and fax that along with a copy of your US passport to the customs office. At this point if they see that the items are yours and are for personal use and it is not a load of brand new iPhones or something they usually send it on without the charge.

-This process takes a long time. Despite the fact that friends and family are forced to pay extremely high charges to ship via priority mail the Italian system does not work with priority energy. It will sit on a floor somewhere for more than a week until someone feels like picking up the box and writing up a charge for a bunch of taxes. Then the whole rigamarole with you sending your passport, etc. Usually I get my stuff 20-40 days after it is sent, 20 being considered super fast, 30-40 the more common.

I LOVE Italy, love the country, love the people, but the mail system is absolutely shameful and an embarrassment to the nation. 3rd world.

Catalina

I stopped sending packages from US to Italy because they never reach destination or they get stuck in Italy because of the customs rules. For the same reason also lots of US ebay sellers avoid sending their products to Italy. Also, when a package is stuck, the customer service doesn't help much.

Genius Cook

I love to get those care packages but always complain when the Italian's punk me for duties & taxes.

You should never declare vitamins or any medicines (not even birth control pills!). This will certainly stop your box in customs for a long and costy inspection.
Have the sender do as already suggested - Take all tags off of of new clothes and unwrap anything that may suggest that it is new.
CD's or DVD's - declare photographs and not CD's OR DVD's.

Have the sender declare: "Used goods for personal use and not intended for resale".

Al M

It seems to me that the best way of dealing with this is to just forget about trying to get anything sent from home while you're in Italy.

It's normal to pay import duty on goods received from another country. You would have to pay US Customs if I sent you something from Italy and if you sent something to a friend in, for example, England, they would have to pay import duty to British Customs.

As others have said, the huge problem with sending any sort of parcel to Italy is the scandalously awful service provided by Poste Italiane. Letters will arrive fairly quickly, but parcels sometimes simply disappear, sometimes get returned to sender for no good reason and sometimes sit somewhere waiting to be processed for months.

Other responders here have given you good practical advice on how to try to deal with the issues, but I would suggest that you and the people who might want to send you a parcel in Italy should think very carefully about whether it's truly worthwhile doing so. It seems to me very likely that the nice feelings of getting a care package might well be more than outweighed by the expense, hassle and headaches associated with actually getting it in your hands.

It's entirely possible to live and eat very well in Italy, but if there are things you really miss about the USA and you're thinking of asking someone to send you some, maybe you should consider whether it might not be nicer to just look forward to the treat you'll have once you get back home.

Alex CJ

yes, taxes are high. The only trick is to declare a very low value (less the 25 euro) and send with the cheapest postage.

k.patro40

I get frequent packages from my family, and the taxes are a lot, and many times they are opened. On the declaration form, do not exceed more than 25 euro...and do not list any items prohbited. Do not send express courier ie ups etc or you pay for sure, sometimes even express air mail gets snagged too. There really is no rhyme no reason to the tax on packages...

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