Pay a Customs Charge

• If your item has been returned to sender or you are awaiting an update on your item, it is likely that the electronic customs declaration made by the retailer/sender for your item may have been insufficient or invalid according to Customs regulations. An Post cannot amend customs declaration so items with incomplete data must be returned. 
• The goods within your parcel may be in a category of goods treated as prohibited or restricted by Irish Revenue.  
• For non restricted/prohibited items, you will need to refer to the sender and request that they submit a customs declaration with full details when resending your item. Our TARIC code finder helps retailers understand the required information needed. 
• Your item will be returned to the sender if the customs charge was not paid by the “pay by date". 

• If you buy goods from outside the EU  you may have to pay customs charges (Customs Duty, Excise Duty, VAT) to Irish Revenue. 

• An Post collect these customs charges from you and pay them to Irish Revenue on your behalf. 

• It is mandatory for An Post to collect customs charges, An Post cannot deliver your items until these charges have been paid. 

• A team of Irish Revenue’s customs officials are based at An Post’s Mail Centre and oversee the customs clearance of imported goods.    

Customs charges arise on the importation of most items in accordance with relevant laws.  An Post collects these charges and pays them to Irish Revenue for you. ​​

An Post may apply a fee to handle, collect and process the item. Where applicable, this fee will be added to customs charges applied by Revenue to your item. The fee is in place to cover the administrative costs of collecting and processing the payment from the addressee. 

• Compliant electronic customs data must be supplied for all incoming non-EU items by the sender. Many smaller, more specialist British retailers are simply not aware of these requirements and/or have not put in place the necessary online shopping systems for selling to Ireland, leading to Customs delays or returns when these parcels arrive in Ireland. Please hold tight, while we work to address this and ongoing queries.

• An Post collect the customs charges on your behalf that are charged by Revenue on items delivered to Ireland from non-EU countries. In order for your parcel to be processed and delivered, these charges must be paid.
• If customs duty or VAT is due on the item, where possible, we will contact you by post, text or email. You can then pay the customs fee above or at your local Post Office. We will deliver your item as soon as possible after payment has been received.
• If there is no customs duty or VAT due on the item, then the item will be delivered as normal.

• An Post will never send a message containing any links when contacting you about the payment of customs charges. 

• Also, within a few days of receiving an An Post customs SMS or email you will receive an official An Post postcard detailing your customs charges (a customs charge notification card to which specific Terms & Conditions apply). 

• You can pay above. You will need your track & trace number and reference number provided in the SMS/email/ or by bringing your reference details to any post office. 

• If you are ever in doubt about scam messages we have further information on our security page to help you identify legitimate and scam messages.