Eurasian Economic Commission plans to introduce tax Internet purchases more expensive than 20 euros

According to finanz.ru, members of the Eurasian Economic Commission will discuss the issue of introducing an additional “tax on online stores” at a meeting of the intergovernmental council on November 18-19 in Yerevan.

The publication clarifies that it is planned to introduce an additional duty for ordering parcels from abroad with a cost of more than 20 euros, and by 2024, a duty of 1 euro should be introduced for parcels worth less than 20 euros.

According to the current rules, foreign goods imported for personal use are taxed if they cost more than 200 euros, or if the parcel weighs over 31 kg. For such purchases, you must pay in excess of the price of 15% of the cost, but not less than 2 euros per 1 kg of weight. These rules will be valid until June 30, 2022.

“Further, from July 1 to December 31, 2022, it is proposed to reduce the duty-free threshold to 100 euros, and from January 1 to December 31, 2023 - to 50 euros, from January 1, 2024 - to 20 euros under the same conditions of customs duty", - the message says.

Thus, in the next two years, the threshold for duty-free import of goods purchased in foreign online stores is planned to be reduced by 10 times.

Unpleasant news for customers is that from January 1, 2024, officials want to introduce a fee of 1 euro for the smallest and cheapest parcels - that is, for those items that cost less than 20 euros and weigh 31 kg.

Experts say that the purpose of changing the duty-free threshold is to increase tax revenues and protect the domestic market.

Over the past year, customers from the Russian Federation bought goods for 1.45 billion euros in foreign online stores. Their customers were delivered in 224.2 million postal items. It is noteworthy that the overwhelming majority of goods (65%) are cheap parcels worth up to 5 euros. Each fifth parcel cost 5-10 euros, 7.3% - 10-15 euros, 2% - 15-20 euros.

Experts estimate that in total, parcels up to € 20 account for more than 96% of shipments, with 87% of parcels costing less than € 15. It is obvious that a sharp decrease in the duty-free threshold can seriously change the consumption market in the country. Market participants point out that today this is the only sales channel for many remote regions of Russia.

The previous decision to lower the duty-free threshold was made in December 2017. Until January 1, 2020, purchases in overseas marketplaces worth up to 500 euros were not taxed. Since January of this year, additional duties have been imposed on goods over 200 euros.