Due to a European Union tax amendment, all shipments arriving from countries outside EU must be declared and value-added tax (VAT) must be paid on them from July 1.

The tax amendment is also valid for goods that were purchased before July 1 but arrive after said date, Estonian state-owned postal service and logistics company Omniva said on Wednesday.

Previously, any parcel arriving from a third country with the value below €22 was not subject to declaration or VAT. This situation will change from July 1 and all shipments will need to be declared, regardless of their value.

Since people across Europe are trying to receive their orders before July 1, the international parcel flow is overloaded and slow.

"Omniva has no way to impact the speed of the parcel arriving to Estonia, but we do everything in our capacity to deliver all items that reach us before July 1 to clients without additional actions," Mägi said.

The aim of the EU-wide amendment is to reduce VAT fraud and ensure equal competition conditions for EU companies with companies located outside the EU.

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