Temu, Shein, and AliExpress orders to face UK customs duty from October 2028
Key Points
- UK to scrap customs duty exemption on parcels worth £135 or less by October 2028 at the latest
- Deadline brought forward six months from the March 2029 date announced in Autumn Budget 2025
- EU already charging €3 per product category on parcels under €150 since July
- Low-value imports into Finland fell 76% in July after the EU change
- Sellers must prepay the charge or set up inside the EU to import in bulk
UK shoppers buying from Temu, Shein and AliExpress will pay customs duty on parcels worth £135 or less from October 2028 at the latest, six months earlier than the government first planned.
Tax and advisory firm S&W said in a briefing that the government confirmed the new date in July, following a three-month consultation on scrapping the low-value import relief that currently lets goods valued at £135 or less enter the UK without customs duty.
The Autumn Budget 2025 first announced the end of the relief, with a deadline of March 2029. The July announcement brought that forward to October 2028.
The relief covers customs duty only, and import VAT already applies to these parcels at the point of sale.
The firm said the government will also amend legislation alongside the removal, including:
- Defining low-value imports by the value of the consignment, with the Treasury given power to change that definition in secondary legislation
- Introducing a fiscal representative who is jointly and severally liable for customs debt arising from another party’s low-value import declaration
- Allowing HMRC to set out new customs arrangements in secondary legislation
The change targets retailers shipping directly from China to UK consumers, a model used by Temu, Shein and AliExpress as well as thousands of third-party sellers on Amazon and eBay.
S&W said the stated aim of both the UK and EU reforms is to make it harder for overseas retailers to sell to consumers and to stem the flow of goods from cheap online retailers, particularly Chinese ones.
EU already making changes
The EU removed its €150 exemption in July and introduced a transitional flat-rate customs charge of €3 per product category on business-to-consumer distance sales. The EU has also proposed a €2 handling fee per consignment from November 2026, with wider customs reform expected in 2028.
The €3 charge applies once for each different tariff classification in a parcel, so an order containing a phone case, a charging cable and a t-shirt attracts three separate charges. Multiple items of the same type only pay once.
Sellers of low-value goods into the EU now have two options: prepay the €3 charge per product category, or set up a branch or company inside the EU and import in bulk.
S&W said prepaying is likely to be economically impractical for low-value, high-volume goods because the charge applies per product category rather than per parcel.
Setting up in the EU depends on the country. S&W said France allows a branch, while Germany requires a company, bringing corporation tax, transfer pricing and related compliance obligations with it.
The European Commission has ruled out bonded warehouses as a workaround. Goods sold to consumers while held in a bonded warehouse are not classed as distance sales, and customs warehouses cannot be used for retail sales under customs legislation and the VAT Directive.
The firm said UK-bound sellers have around two years to prepare, while sellers into the EU are dealing with the changes now.
