Internet declaration for postal and courier consignments with a goods value of up to 150 euros (IPK)

General information

With the IPK, low-value consignments can be released for free circulation in accordance with Article 143a of the UCC-DA (Delegated Regulation (EU) No 2015/2446).

The IPK is only intended for the following imports by businesses and private individuals:

• Consignments with a material value of up to 150 euros and consignments from one private individual to another (gift consignments) with a material value of up to 45 euros.
• Only consignments intended for free circulation.
• Only consignments intended for recipients in Germany (exception: import procedure Import One Stop Shop - IOSS).

 The following goods cannot be declared using the IPK:

• Goods subject to excise duties (e.g. tobacco duty). If a gift consignment only contains excise goods that fall within the duty-free allowance, the goods can be declared using the IPK.
• Goods subject to prohibitions and restrictions. This particularly applies if the import of the goods is prohibited or if specific documents (e.g. permits, licences or other import documents) are to be presented to the customs office for this.
  It is your responsibility as the declarant to check and comply with the relevant legal provisions for the goods being imported and to determine whether import documents need to be presented for these goods.

 Note: Since 1 April 2024, the use of the IPK has been mandatory for commercial declarants. A verbal customs declaration for consignments with a material value of up to 150 euros is no longer permissible for commercial declarants.

Storage period/storage costs:

For consignments stored at the customs office, the IPK should be submitted promptly, as the consignment will be returned to the sender if the storage period at the customs office is exceeded. The storage period for letters, small parcels and parcels is 9 days (see notification letter from Deutsche Post AG). From the 10th day of storage of the consignment at the customs office, storage costs of at least €5 (€0.50/day) are incurred if a customs declaration has not yet been submitted.

The consignment may be opened by customs for inspection purposes.

Further information can be found on the Customs website (www.zoll.de) under the following links:

• For private individuals
• For businesses
  

  Instructions for completion

 To submit the IPK, please proceed as follows:

• First, you need to register on the Customs Portal with an ELSTER certificate, an online ID (e.g. electronic identity card) or an eIDAS certificate including an EORI number. Then you open the service “Cross-border trade in goods” and select the IPK there.
• Decide beforehand by selecting the relevant option whether you would like to collect the consignment yourself from the customs office after clearance or have it delivered by a parcel service provider. If you have the parcel delivered by a parcel service provider, you need to send a parcel label to the customs office.
• Please confirm the declaration concerning the IPK invalidation in case of non-collection of the consignment or non-payment of the charges within the specified period.
• Then enter the data for your consignment:
  • General declaration data
  • Information about the desired payment method
  • Details of all parties involved in the consignment
  • Data on any existing previous documents and finalisation data of a previous summary declaration to customs or the consignment number of the consignment
  • All the documents relating to the consignment
  • Itemised data (details of the individual goods of the consignment)

Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk (*). Conditional mandatory fields are labelled “(conditional)” if their completion is mandatory based on information entered in other fields. The other fields do not need to be completed.

The form responds dynamically to your entries and is partially rearranged, for example, to show required fields and hide fields that are not required, or to display new conditional mandatory fields.

Please note that the maximum processing time per page is 60 minutes and that the session is ended with a corresponding message if this time is exceeded.

Please have all documents relating to the consignment, such as invoices and transport documents, to hand when completing the IPK.

To assist you with the data entry, value lists, guidelines and the information sheet on customs declarations, summary declarations and re-export notifications (in particular Title II – Section III – Chapter 2) are available in German.

In addition, the Customs Service Desk is available to answer any questions you may have concerning the IPK. You can reach the Customs Service Desk at www.zoll.de.

Indication of the commodity code

In the commodity code field, the six-digit commodity code from the Harmonised System of the World Customs Organisation is to be entered for the imported goods. This commodity code can be found in EZT-Online (Elektronische Zolltarif-online - the Electronic Customs Tariff Online). All goods that can be involved in cross-border trade are listed in this customs tariff schedule, which means that each good is assigned a specific number, known as a commodity code (also referred to as a code number or customs tariff number).

Alongside EZT-Online, the EU Commission also provides the TARIC information application, which can also be used to find the six-digit commodity code. The goods description is available in all languages of the EU Member States.

If you need information on the commodity code of a good, you can obtain this information from the Central Customs Information Desk (Zentrale Auskunft Zoll) by telephone, e-mail or post.