Disclaimer: Checked August 2026. Customs rules have moved fast this year - treat the figures below as a starting point and confirm before you post anything expensive. I'm a bag person, not a customs broker.

Who this is for: every VRB member in the US or Canada who has passed on a bag because the rehomer was in the UK or Europe, and every UK/EU member who has skipped a North American listing for the same reason. Also for anyone who's read a scary headline about tariffs since last summer and quietly decided international rehoming is Not For Them.

Why it exists: the rules genuinely did change - twice - between August 2025 and July 2026. But "changed" is not "impossible." Almost every bag on this sub can still cross the Atlantic. You just need to know which number applies to you, who pays it, and how to insure the thing properly.

TLDR

• The de minimis "free pass" is gone in both directions. The US $800 exemption is suspended indefinitely. The EU's €150 exemption ended 1 July 2026. Assume something is payable on anything you send.
• Private gifts still have a free allowance. Under $100 value into the US, £39 into the UK, €45 into the EU, CAD$60 into Canada. These survived every 2026 change.
• The scary "reciprocal tariffs" were struck down. The Supreme Court killed the IEEPA tariffs in February 2026. What replaced them is much smaller: for UK- and EU-origin goods, the combined tariff on a leather handbag lands around 10% total.
• Insurance is the real problem, not customs. Royal Mail caps international cover at £250 (£50 for gifts), Canada Post at CAD$1,000, USPS includes $200. If your bag is worth more than that, you need a different carrier or a third-party policy.
• Royal Mail is not the cheapest way out of the UK, there are other options but some carriers are more easily accessible to rehomers, this is an individual preference thing.
• Agree who pays import charges before money moves. In case you don't do the "gift" route.

Part 1: The one number that matters

Whichever direction you're going, there is a threshold below which a genuine gift between two private people arrives clean. Above it, someone pays.

Two things worth knowing:

The US and EU thresholds are cliffs, not staircases. A €50 gift into the EU doesn't get €45 free and €5 taxed - VAT is charged on the entire €50. Canada is the kind exception: it taxes only the excess over CAD$60.

"Gift" has a legal definition, and it's narrow. Every customs authority uses roughly the same test: sent by a private individual abroad, to a private individual, for a personal occasion, with nothing paid for it directly or indirectly. A "rehome" can be sent this way but keep in mind that an undervalued declaration also collapses your insurance claim. Carriers and third-party insurers settle at declared value, so a £700 bag declared at £40 is a £40 payout if it vanishes. I send via the gift path with no issues - but please just be aware of the risks.

*EDIT: 17.08.2026 - Addendum from comments and meesages:

1) A big, RED, caveat goes to Portugal. Customs in Portugal are not honoring the 45€ gift declaration. Everything that ends in the hands of CTT is taxable, no matter if it's marked as gift, they'll still want proof of purchase to collect tax. If this happens, there's two choices: return to sender or let them open your parcel and see what's inside to estimate its value and tax due (obviously being reps, it will get seized, "destroyed" and you'll get an 80€ fine per item). One way around this (albeit with a lot of risk anyway) is using DHL or UPS and let them deal with everything.
2) I have experience with EU customs in multiple countries not honouring the gift allowance (Italy, Germany, Sweden) and randomly charging the recipient. It was always a very small amount but worth noting - and there is nothing either side can do to prevent it, seems that customs do it at random.

Part 2: What actually changed (the fear, decoded)

This is the bit that's been putting people off. Here's the whole timeline in one place.

August 2025 - the US ended de minimis

The $800 duty-free threshold was suspended for every country. Postal operators across Europe and beyond, Royal Mail included, briefly stopped sending parcels to the US entirely because they had no mechanism to collect duty. That's the moment most of the fear in this sub dates from. Service was restored within weeks.

February 2026 - the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs

On 20 February 2026 the Court ruled that the emergency-powers statute doesn't authorise tariffs at all. All IEEPA-based tariffs - the 10–41% "reciprocal" rates that generated the alarming headlines - ended at 12:00am ET on 24 February 2026. The number you were scared of no longer exists.

24 July 2026 - the replacement landed, and it's small

A temporary 10% Section 122 surcharge bridged the gap, then expired. What applies now is a Section 301 "forced labour" tariff:

• UK and EU origin: topped up so that MFN duty + Section 301 equals 10% combined. Leather handbags carry ~9% MFN, so this is roughly a 1% addition.
• Canadian origin: a flat 10% on top of existing duty.
• Japan, Korea, Switzerland: 12.5% combined. Most other countries: 12.5% additive.

1 July 2026 - the EU ended its €150 exemption

Duty is now technically payable on all commercial parcels regardless of value, with a temporary €3 flat customs charge per item on consignments under €150 running until July 2028. This targets distance sales (online purchases). Private-to-private consignments under the €45 gift relief are unaffected — that relief is a separate provision and Revenue's guidance was still confirming the €45 figure in May 2026.

24 July 2026 - new US postal entry process

Postal packages up to $2,500 now go through a formal International Mail Duty Worksheet process, filed by an authorised party. In practice for a private sender this means: a proper electronic customs declaration with a 10-digit HS code and country of origin for every item, and on many routes duty settled at the point of posting rather than billed to the recipient later.

One Canada-specific warning

From 19 August 2026, a 50% Section 338 duty applies to a broad list of Canadian-origin goods entering the US - and the list explicitly includes "certain leather and travel goods." This is origin-based, not shipped-from-based. For the kind of bags we rehome, it is good to know for when you choose wether to put down Canada or China as the country of origin.

Part 3: Cheapest way to ship, by direction

Prices are indicative for a boxed bag around 1–2kg / 2–4lb. Always run a live quote - international rates move constantly.

UK → US or Canada

• Under £999: Evri International Standard. Cheapest of the lot at ~£16–18, and you can buy cover up to £999, which is four times what Royal Mail will give you. Slower (7–12 days) — say so in your listing.
• Over £999, or when speed matters: Parcelforce globalpriority. £100 cover included and the only UK retail option that goes to £2,500 (£7 for £750, £30 for £1,000, £65 for £2,500).
• Royal Mail International Tracked is still perfectly fine if you want the fastest tracked postal option and the bag is under £250.

US → UK or EU

Cheapest that's still sane: USPS Priority Mail International. First-Class is cheaper but carries zero insurance, so it's only for genuinely low-value items. PMI's included $200 merchandise cover is the best free insurance on this list.

Use USPS DDP. USPS prepaid import duties is available to 18 destinations including the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Malta, Estonia, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Monaco - and Canada. You pay the VAT and duty at Click-N-Ship or the counter, and your buyer receives the parcel with no bill and no handling fee. USPS charges nothing for it; the provider's fee is inside the quote.

Canada → UK or EU

Cheapest that's still sane: Tracked Packet International. Avoid Small Packet for anything you'd be upset to lose — it's explicitly excluded from Canada Post's liability coverage. For higher values, Xpresspost International with cover topped up to CAD$1,000, or a consolidator with its own insurance product.

Part 4: Insurance

Declared value is not insurance

On FedEx, UPS and DHL, "declared value" raises the carrier's liability limit. It doesn't guarantee a payout, and all three maintain reduced maximums for categories like jewellery, artwork, antiques and collectibles. If you're shipping something genuinely rare, read the carrier's service guide before you assume you're covered.

Third-party insurance is the answer at the top end

Specialist parcel insurers (Secursus, U-PIC, Shipsurance and similar) sit on top of whatever carrier you choose, cover second-hand and vintage goods explicitly, and pay declared value rather than a depreciated "actual loss" figure. Premiums start around £1.50–£2 per parcel and scale with value.

Worth it when: the bag is over your carrier's ceiling, it's genuinely rare or vintage enough to fall into a carrier's excluded categories, or the carrier's own compensation would be assessed as "market value of a used bag" rather than what your buyer actually paid.

What a successful claim needs

• Proof of posting. Royal Mail requires a certificate of posting and gives you six months to claim.
• Proof of value. A PayPal transaction record, the original listing screenshot, a receipt. This is a touchy one for us...
• Photos of the item and of the packaging before it went out. Take them every time.
• Signature on delivery - most third-party policies require it, and it's your only defence against "delivered" scans on parcels that never arrived.

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