18 June 2019 Turkey amends customs law to remove exemption threshold for certain imported goods Turkey's Presidential Decree No. 1111, issued and promulgated in the Official Gazette dated 15 May 2019 and numbered 3077, establishes that the Decree on Amendments of Certain Articles of Customs Law No. 4458 (the Decree) will enter into force 15 days following its publication. The Decree removes the exemption threshold for certain imported goods as summarized below. Under the Decree, the exemption threshold for imported products which arrive in Turkey via post and fast shipping (except for books or relevant publications) has been fully withdrawn. The exemption threshold still applies to books or relevant publications whose price does not exceed €150. The Council of Ministers Resolution No. 15481, published in 2009, established the exemption threshold for imported products whose price did not exceed €150, which was then reduced to €75 in 2011, to €30 at the beginning of 2017, to €22 in April 2018 and finally to zero on 15 May 2019. Prior to the said amendments, deliveries which cost up to €22 would not be taxed, whereas; the following duty rates would apply to imported products worth more than €22 but less than €1,500 and delivered from:
Based on the amendments, imported goods arriving from the EU (no minimum threshold) valued up to €1,500 shall be subject to the duty rates mentioned above. Imported goods that exceed €1,500, on the other hand, will be subject to the requirements of importation (for release into free circulation) customs procedure. The said amendment is of particular importance for electronic commerce operators as well as users. This also points to a divergence from the current regulation in force in the EU which is still €22.5. This matter is also important because it relates to natural persons who conduct business via post and fast shipping since all posts shall be subject to customs duties and procedures from now on. Prior to the amendments, products not exceeding €22.00 were exempted from customs duties and were delivered directly to the customer via an Electronic Customs Declaration (EDC), submitted by the freight company. However, the amended provisions result in the levy of customs duty of these goods which will not benefit from the EDC. In addition, the costs of importation might rise due to increasing volume of customs brokerage services and warehouse charges, among others, which might potentially deter consumers from using cargo or fast shipping for goods of high value. In addition to natural persons, companies will no longer be able to benefit from the exemption when importing samples whose value are below €22. Companies then can either import samples by paying the required amount of duties or by filing for a separate exemption which might entail a set of conditions and procedures.
Document ID: 2019-1119 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
