UK Customs, VAT & Duty on Trading Cards from Japan — What You Actually Pay
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When you order trading cards from Japan to the United Kingdom, the dividing line is not how expensive your order was. It is a single figure — £135 — and what changes on either side of it is not whether there is tax, but who collects it, and when.
We run a trading card shop in Japan and ship to the UK. This guide covers the rules as of September 2026, with links to the official sources. Rules can change, so please check the latest for yourself too.
The short version
- VAT applies on both sides of £135, at the standard rate of 20%.
- £135 or less: a seller outside the UK selling directly to you charges UK VAT at checkout. Customs duty: no charge.
- Over £135: ordinary import rules. You pay VAT to the delivery company before the parcel is delivered, or when you collect it.
- Duty on cards made in Japan is 0% under the UK–Japan trade agreement, and no origin paperwork is needed under £1,000.
- The £135 is measured on the price of the goods, per parcel. Postage counts only if it is folded into the price.
One line, two ways of collecting the same tax
The tax is VAT (value added tax), the UK's sales tax. The standard rate is 20%.
At or under £135. When a seller outside the UK sells directly to a UK customer — not through one of the big marketplaces — the seller charges UK VAT at the point of sale. The government's own page for buyers puts it plainly: "the seller will have included VAT in the total you paid." For these goods, customs duty is listed as no charge.
Over £135. Ordinary import rules take over. The parcel is handled at the border, and you pay the VAT to the delivery company — before it is delivered, or when you collect it.
Same tax, same 20%. What moves is who collects it, and when.
What the £135 is measured on
What counts is the intrinsic value — the price the goods were sold for. Transport and insurance are not included, unless they are included in the price and not shown separately on the invoice.
For example, say you pay £140 in total:
| How the order is written | Value tested against £135 | Result |
|---|---|---|
| £130 of cards + £10 postage, shown separately | £130 | Under the line |
| "Free shipping", £140 in one figure | £140 | Over the line |
The same money leaves your pocket; the answer changes because of how it was written.
The test is also per consignment — the whole parcel, not each card. Five cards at £30 each sit below the line on their own; in one box they come to £150 and cross it.
The £39 allowance you may have heard of is for gifts between private individuals — not for something you bought from a shop.
Is there customs duty on cards?
Cards sit on the UK tariff line for playing cards (9504 40 00 00). The general (third country) rate on that line is 2.00%, and for goods originating in Japan it is 0.00% — the preferential rate under the UK–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
To use a preferential rate you normally need a statement of origin, a document declaring where the goods were made. From Japan to the UK, goods below £1,000 in value do not need one. So for an ordinary card order, neither you nor the shop has paperwork to prepare.
Classification is customs' call in the end, but for cards made in Japan (goods originating in Japan), duty comes to zero.
What happens when your order is over £135
- The parcel arrives and is processed at the border.
- Royal Mail, Parcelforce or the courier contacts you — with Royal Mail, a card through the door or a message.
- You pay before delivery, or when the parcel is handed over.
The VAT is charged on the total package value: the price of the goods, plus shipping, packaging and insurance, plus any duty owed — and 20% of that total. For cards from Japan the duty is zero, so in practice, think of it as 20% of the goods plus the postage.
On top of that, the delivery company adds its own handling fee for the customs paperwork. Royal Mail and Parcelforce each charge their own fee and publish it on their websites, so check the current amount there.
Once it is paid, the parcel is delivered normally. Nothing is stuck, and nothing is taken away: one payment step is added along the way, and you can work out what it will be before you order.
A change the government has announced
In July 2026, HMRC published plans to remove the £135 customs duty relief and introduce new customs arrangements for low-value imports, coming into force by October 2028 at the latest. This concerns customs duty, not the VAT rules above. For cards from Japan the duty rate is already 0%, so we do not expect it to change what you pay — but we will update this guide when the details are set.
A short checklist before you order
- Buying at or under £135: check whether the shop charges UK VAT at checkout. If it does, there is nothing to pay on arrival — you can see it on the final screen before you confirm.
- Buying over £135: every shop is the same shape — handled at the border, one payment before delivery. So compare the postage, and whether the shop declares your parcel properly.
How we ship to the UK
We ship to the United Kingdom by EMS (Express Mail Service, tracked), on orders of £136 and above. So an order from us always sits above the line: we do not collect UK VAT at our checkout, and you pay the VAT once, before your parcel is delivered.
That arrangement is called delivered duty unpaid — the tax is paid by the person receiving the parcel. It is the ordinary way of things in international shipping, and we chose it because the amount can be worked out in advance. It is also why we cannot send smaller orders to the UK: we keep our shipping on one side of that line, on purpose. See our shipping policy for the current details.
Official sources
- GOV.UK — Tax and customs for goods sent from abroad
- HMRC — VAT and overseas goods sold directly to customers in the UK (the £135 consignment rule and intrinsic value)
- GOV.UK — VAT rates
- UK Integrated Online Tariff — 9504 40 00 00 Playing cards
- GOV.UK — Summary of the UK–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (statement of origin waiver below £1,000)
- Royal Mail — Pay customs fees
- HMRC — Reforming customs rules for low value imports (published 13 July 2026)
Last checked against official sources: 28 September 2026. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rates, thresholds and procedures change — verify the current official sources for your own situation. How a specific parcel is classified, and the value it is assessed on, are decided at clearance.