How to avoid import charges when shipping warranty replacements to the EU?

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Main issue: How to ship EU warranty replacements from the UK without triggering import VAT/fees when VAT was already paid on the original sale.

Context: Normal sales use IOSS (EU Import One‑Stop Shop for VAT on low‑value imports) and generally work, though destination carriers and occasional Royal Mail issues cause hiccups. The uncertainty is specifically about non-sale replacements.

Constraints noted:

  • Businesses cannot mark items as “gift” on CN22.
  • Declaring zero value gets flagged and may incur fees, varying by country.
  • Adding an IOSS number in Click & Drop makes the shipment appear like a new taxable sale, not a no-charge replacement.

Key question: Is there a correct customs/VAT procedure to prevent import charges on free replacements, or are extra fees unavoidable?

Status: No solution or official procedure shared. Another participant confirms facing the same issue and asks if a resolution was found. Discussion remains open/unsolved.

Summarized with AI on January 8. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hello all,

We’re a UK based company and have to occasionally send replacements for lost, damaged or faulty items to countries in the EU. We’ve used IOSS since it went live so rarely any problems with the “normal” international shipping process; if there is an issue it’s always at the other end due to some country’s unfamiliarity with IOSS, the reliability of the relevant country’s national carrier or a Royal Mail technical fault - such as happened recently - but we’re still a little unsure about what to do to avoid import charges or other fees for shipments that aren’t technically ‘sales of goods’, and for which VAT etc. has already been paid.

I’ve been unable to find anything that has details set in stone for the correct procedures but do understand that marking it as a gift on the CN22 customs label is not allowed for businesses. Also, if we send something marked as zero value it will of course get flagged (and likely incur some extra cost but these seems to vary from country to country) and if we add the IOSS number to Click & Drop it’s declared as looking like an order where VAT or something else has to be collected, but all we want to do is send a replacement free of charge and support our customer after the original transaction was done and dusted and perfectly legal.

Any help is very much appreciated and I’m sure there are others in the same boat. For now is this something we just have to grin and bear with? it does seem unreasonable that there should be extra fees when sending a replacement + postage costs has already lost us money.

Kind regards,
Rob.

2

Hi Rob, did you ever find a solution to this? I’m facing the same issue and unsure how to declare it.