Helsy

Hi everyone,

My husband and i are both residents in Portugal (we came residents last year before the dreaded Brexit). Unfortunately, we has to return to the UK and have been here due to Covid. We're now able to move and are looking at shipping our household furniture to Portugal.

I would really appreciate any advice / to double check my understanding of requirements.

I have the baggage declaration form to be completed and sent to the consulate. This seems self explanatory to complete.

There isn't much guidance on the format of the inventory of the goods being shipped - is this a list of all items or can we do the list based on each box / the furniture? Any advice on this would be great.

With the declaration we have read that the goods can be imported duty free (all goods are used and our current household items). Is there any timelines that i may have missed? For example, can we ship duty free even though we've been residents for 6 months?

We understand we will need to be in Portugal prior to the goods arriving, this shouldn't be a problem.

Any other information that you can impart on us would be great.

Thank you in advance!
Helen and Antony

liveaboard

I was told by the people at Direct Transport that the requirements keep changing; so for the latest advice, I advise you to ask your shipping company.
They have people working on customs formalities on a daily basis.

Shanorme

I've just had Algarve Removals telling me that it doesn't matter that it is household effects or that all the goods are older than 6 months and that I will be expected to pay VAT & customs duties on my household move. This doesn't sound right to me, especially as I have read that it doesn't apply.

Can anyone recommend a company that is au fait with the legislation?

liveaboard

AIM, Direct Transport, or call alfendega yourself and ask.

That exemption is full of rules and limits; maybe you've been residents of Portugal for too long?

Shanorme

No, Algarve Removals didn't even ask - they claim any household goods is subject to a 40% surcharge of VAT and duties. Thanks, I will give them all a call. Residency for less than 6 months.

Rambling archer

Shandorme
I was intrigued by the question and did a bit of a search, and there is very little about how to do it after Brexit but I did find this, and suggest the route to go (apart from shipping and removals companies) is this form to be done for the Portuguese embassy in London. http://www.portugalemlondres.org/upl...ertificate.pdf
and the Emassy/Consulate is here - don't worry it comes up in Portuguese but top right there is "select language" option. Consulado Geral de Portugal em Londres - Início

Definitely CustomsVAT-free for household goods, and it seems to be within 12 months of residency.

Shanorme

Hi, thank you for the links, it's very kind of you - that's what I had read as well. In fact, when I pointed it out and asked the lady I was speaking to from Algarve Removals if the Portuguese Government website was wrong, she said "yes". I had hoped to use them for my move but clearly, they're not up to speed on 3rd country home removals. I will try Direct Transport on Monday and if anyone has recently done a house move post Brexit, could they please please tell me what their experience was and they used? I might start a separate thread as it clearly is an issue.

BlackBeardie

Hello,
You could try Algarve Express. They are very knowledgable and provide an excellent service.

bons

So, does this mean that any goods owned by person at time of residency are not subject to VAT or any other tax? Do you need to supply receipts? Do you have to owned the stuff for a set period of time?

On another note, we wanted to buy something for our car, a part that was in Spain. They said they've stopped selling to the UK because of import duty. I thought we had a deal with the EU and wouldn't need to pay this. Maybe it's just for big companies.

liveaboard

I'm not even British, but I bought a lot of mail order from there because of good webshops and competitive pricing.
A lot of things I want are just really hard to find.

Sadly, mail order between the EU and UK is now basically closed.

You can still do it, but you have to wait, submit receipts, wait, and then pay.
Takes the fun out of it.