Christmas 2023

Angelika Tradition obligates. Once again this year, I'm writing the Christmas newsletter at the last minute on Christmas Eve, but it's also a good way to reflect a little before the tree gets decorated. Also, 2023 was marked by global political crises and environmental catastrophes. It feels like we're all sitting on a powder keg. But the Christmas story is a story full of hope, even if one is not religious. A person is born in a humble stable and tries to change the world with peaceful means.

In the last newsletter, I admitted that I really enjoy celebrating Christmas and I'm also one of those people who enjoy giving Christmas presents. I strive to find something nice that brings joy to the recipient. It may not always succeed, but the intention is always there. For years, I diligently and joyfully packed parcels for Christmas and sent them to Germany until the German customs really made it difficult for me. Every once in while, customs opened of my parcels for inspection, but since they were always properly labeled with a customs declaration and clearly marked as gift shipments, they never charged fees.

Because gifts worth up to 45 euros sent from private individuals residing in the USA to Germany are exempt from import duties. By the way, the odd number of 45 euros came about because at the introduction of the Euro, the previous maximum value of 100 DM was converted. Also interesting is that this threshold has not been adjusted or increased with in inflation in all these years.

Since the boom in online commerce, more and more people in Germany have been ordering goods from non-European countries, such as cool T-shirts from America. Now, customs rightly distinguishes between commercial goods and gifts, and import duties usually apply to commercial goods to avoid disadvantaging the domestic economy. Now, creative online retailers who didn't want to pay the custom fees thought, "I'll just check 'gift' box on the customs declaration." This practice became so widespread that stricter standards were put in place in the European Union since July 2021.

What happened was that the carriers, such as the postal service or other parcel delivery services like UPS, were made agents of the German customs agency. They're now obligated to decide for every single shipment if it really is a gift or a commercial shipment, based on the electronic customs declaration. When in doubt, they seem to assume initially that the goods were only declared as a gift but are not actually a gift. In this case, the postal service or courier service may add a processing fee for this alleged service, and then impose import duties, usually import sales tax, often unlawfully. The recipient in Germany is then required to pay these charges, otherwise the German postal service will not hand over the package.

That's certainly super annoying and embarrassing when you intend to give a gift, and the recipient ends up having to pay for it. Often, as the giver, you don't even know about it because these aren't exorbitant amounts, and the recipient politely won't mention it. They often don't even realize that the charges shouldn't actually be paid, but remain silent and pay up. In my opinion, this is exactly what the German customs are aiming for. On the customs website, it casually states that the customer can claim back unlawfully levied charges by filling out a form, but who bothers to do that for six or seven euros, especially since you won't get back the processing fee charged by the postal service anyway? Argh! What I find sad about this is that once again, honest people end up bearing the consequences when others engage in shady dealings. It's just not fair.

So, if there are any customs officers or postal workers reading this (and of course, the politicians pushing through such regulations in the European Parliament), please consider the people who simply want to send a gift to bring joy to someone. There must be a way to make that work with reasonable effort.

To all you dear newsletter readers, we wish that today you receive at least one gift that makes you jump for joy.

In this spirit, Merry Christmas!

Angelika und Michael