Customs Duty on Food Parcels from India: 2026 Rules by Country
The duty-free parcel is gone. What that means for your gift box.
In the last twelve months the United States and the European Union have both dismantled the rules that let small parcels cross a border without duty, and the United Kingdom has legislated to follow. Most people sending food home this year do not know yet.
For years there was a simple, comforting rule. If the parcel was small enough, nobody charged you anything. In the United States that line sat at $800. In the European Union it was 150 euro. In the United Kingdom, 135 pounds.
Two of those three are already gone. The third has a date on it.
The date the United States suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for shipments of $800 or less, from every country. US Customs made the suspension indefinite by interim final rules published 24 June 2026, and the statutory repeal follows on 1 July 2027.
What changed, country by country
| Where it lands | Status | What applies now |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Gone | De minimis suspended from 29 Aug 2025, made indefinite 24 June 2026. Duty applies by country of origin at any value. Express parcels need a formal customs entry. Postal shipments must use the ad valorem method only since 28 Feb 2026; the old flat per-item option no longer exists. |
| European Union | Gone | The 150 euro relief ended 1 July 2026 under Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382. A flat customs duty of 3 euro per tariff line applies, running to 1 July 2028. It is per item category, not per parcel. |
| United Kingdom | Still in force | The 135 pound relief has not been removed. Draft legislation published 13 July 2026 amends the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018, to commence by statutory instrument no later than October 2028. Anyone telling you UK duty relief is already gone is wrong. |
| Canada | Always low | For goods of Indian origin the de minimis is CAD 20. The CAD 40 and CAD 150 figures apply to US and Mexican origin under CUSMA and do not help a parcel from India. Duty, then GST/HST, then a brokerage fee. |
| Australia | Most generous | Under AUD 1,000 there is no duty, no border GST and no import processing charge. GST is instead collected by the seller at checkout. Under the India-Australia trade agreement, 100% of Indian tariff lines carry zero duty from 1 January 2026, though dairy sits on the exclusion list. |
The detail most guides get wrong
The EU charge is not 3 euro a parcel. It is 3 euro per tariff line. A single Indian gift box holding sweets, biscuits and a jar of pickle crosses three tariff headings, so it attracts 9 euro, not 3.
The UK relief still exists. Removal is drafted, not commenced. Treat any article that says otherwise with suspicion, including ones published after July 2026.
UK gift relief is commercially useless. The 39 pound threshold requires the parcel to be private individual to private individual and not paid for by anyone in the UK. Any retail purchase structurally fails that test, whatever the sender writes on the form.
Do not trust a Canadian CAD 150 figure. It is a CUSMA number for US and Mexican goods. For a parcel from India the threshold is CAD 20.
Where this goes wrong for a gift
A gift is the worst possible parcel to get this wrong on, because the person who gets the customs bill is not the person who chose to send it.
- The courier invoices the recipient, not you. Under Delivered Duty Unpaid terms, which is the default for most senders, the carrier fronts the duty and then bills whoever opens the door.
- The handling fee is usually bigger than the duty. On a parcel worth 100 to 200 dollars the carrier's minimum fee always binds. FedEx moved to the greater of USD 17.50 or 2.5% on 20 July 2026. DHL in Europe charges 2% with a 16.50 euro minimum. On a European parcel the handling fee is close to double the 9 euro duty.
- Food attracts extra scrutiny. Sweets, pickles and anything containing dairy or meat can be held for inspection, which turns a three-day delivery into a two-week one, and a fresh sweet into a stale one.
- Milk-based sweets carry a hidden cost in the EU. The tariff line for sugar confectionery containing milk fat carries an agricultural component on top of the ad valorem rate. Any guide quoting only the headline percentage understates what milk sweets actually attract.
The one question to ask any sender
There is exactly one question worth asking before you pay for anything: is this shipped DDP or DAP?
DDP, Delivered Duty Paid, means the sender has already settled duty and tax at origin. DAP, Delivered At Place, means the recipient pays. If a checkout does not say which it is, assume DAP and assume a bill.
Desify ships DDP. Duty and taxes are settled before the box leaves India, and if a charge is ever raised at the other end, we refund it. The price at checkout is the price.
DDP is not a magic word
This is worth knowing even when you are buying from us, because the Incoterm alone does not settle everything everywhere.
In the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, DDP does what it says. The sender pays, the recipient pays nothing.
In the European Union, the duty is clean but the VAT is not automatic. The 3 euro per line sits with the declarant, so it never reaches you. Import VAT is a different matter: it only stays away from the recipient if the seller holds an IOSS registration or is properly named as importer of record. A seller who books DDP but not VAT can still leave you with a VAT invoice plus the carrier's handling fee. The fix is the registration, not the Incoterm.
In Australia the risk runs the other way. GST on low-value goods is collected by the seller at checkout by law. If a sender also pays tax at the border, the recipient can be charged twice. Australia should be configured as DDP excluding GST.
What this means for Diwali
Diwali falls on Sunday 8 November 2026, with Dhanteras on Friday 6 November. Two things follow.
Order earlier than you think. Customs clearance is the variable that has grown, not flight time. Express air freight from India still runs 3 to 5 business days. Clearance under the new rules is where parcels now sit.
| Destination | Order by |
|---|---|
| United States | 1 November 2026 |
| United Kingdom, Ireland | 1 November 2026 |
| Canada, Australia, New Zealand | 30 October 2026 |
| European Union, Switzerland | 30 October 2026 |
Check what is inside before you check the price. Several countries restrict dairy and meat products regardless of duty. A box that clears customs in the United States may be refused entry to the United Kingdom or Australia. That is a separate problem from duty, and it destroys parcels rather than taxing them.
The short version
- The US $800 and EU 150 euro cushions are gone. The UK 135 pound relief still exists but is legislated to go by October 2028.
- The EU charge is 3 euro per tariff line, so a mixed gift box pays more than 3 euro.
- For a parcel from India, Canada's threshold is CAD 20, not CAD 150.
- Australia under AUD 1,000 is the cleanest corridor, with GST collected at checkout instead.
- The courier handling fee is usually larger than the duty itself.
- DDP settles it in the US, Canada and UK. In the EU it needs IOSS behind it, and in Australia it must exclude GST.
- Order by 1 November 2026 for Diwali on 8 November. Earlier for Canada, Australia and the EU.
Sources and limits
United States: Executive Order of July 2025 suspending duty-free de minimis for all countries; CBP interim final rules published 24 June 2026 making the suspension indefinite for non-postal and postal modes; statutory repeal under Public Law 119-21. European Union: Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 ending the 150 euro relief on 1 July 2026, and the delegated regulation setting a 3 euro flat duty per tariff line to 1 July 2028. United Kingdom: draft legislation published 13 July 2026 amending the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018; GOV.UK guidance on import VAT and customs duty on gifts. Canada: CBSA tariff schedule and published de minimis values. Australia: the AUD 1,000 low value threshold, the vendor-collection GST model, and the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement schedule effective 1 January 2026. Carrier fees: FedEx and DHL published schedules, 2026.
Some figures we deliberately have not published because we could not confirm them against a primary source: the exact US duty rate now applying to Indian-origin confectionery, and line-level UK tariff rates. Where we could not verify, we have left the number out rather than estimate it.
Customs rules change often and vary by product category, declared value and country of origin. This is a general guide for people sending food gifts, not tax advice. Check the current position for your destination before you ship, and ask your sender to confirm DDP in writing.