Parcel shipping to Gran Canaria

Many owners and customers frequently ask how exactly parcel shipping and online orders to Gran Canaria work. Since Gran Canaria, or rather all the Canary Islands, are a special zone within the European Union, they do not belong to the territory of the Community with regard to VAT.

The Canary Islands are a special zone

There are some things you should know if you are planning to send a parcel to the Canary Islands or if you want to place an online order. Therefore, we need to clarify in advance what this special zone means exactly:
Due to this special zone, the Canary Islands are not subject to the harmonised VAT system, sales taxes are the responsibility of national or local authorities. There is a local tax on consumption, the IGIC (Impuesto General Indirecto de Canarias) with different rates and another tax on the consumption of some product groups, the AIEM.
The AIEM has different rates and varies depending on the product group. For example, cleaning products (5%), coffee (15%), printed matter (15%), food supplements (15%) or pet food (10%) fall under this regulation. The list of articles covered by the AIEM is very long, and it would be beyond the scope of this article to list all product groups. Originally, the AIEM was intended to strengthen companies in the Canary Islands, as the AIEM is levied on articles that are also produced locally and the intention was to make the import of such articles from outside the Canary Islands to the Canary Islands unattractive. In the meantime, the question has arisen as to whether this approach is still appropriate, as many products that fall under this regulation are often no longer produced in the Canary Islands and the product groups are also very broadly defined.

The rates for IGIC and AIEM for common products are summarised very well on the website of the Gobierno de Canarias.

Because of this, sending parcels is not so easy, as the parcels are not simply transported to the destination and delivered as in the rest of the EU, but that the IGIC and AIEM may still have to be paid, depending on the declared value in the declaration of contents of the consignment:

• For shipments of goods and shipments between private individuals, there is an allowance of €150 in relation to IGIC.
• For AIEM, there is no allowance for consignments/orders of goods.
• For shipments between private individuals, the AIEM allowance is €110 and the IGIC allowance is €150.
• Shipments containing tobacco or alcohol (wine, spirits, beer, etc.) must be taxed directly, there is no exemption limit!

These taxes are often referred to as customs duties, but this is not correct. For shipments originating in the EU, no customs clearance is necessary, you only have to pay the local taxes as soon as you exceed the applicable exemption limits.

Due to the special zone, goods orders to the Canary Islands are made without charging VAT.

The parcel transit time for normal deliveries to the Canary Islands, which are processed by the Spanish Post Correos, is approx. 10-14 days: The parcels for the Canary Islands land in a separate parcel centre in Madrid before they are transported further to the islands. As only one parcel centre is responsible for deliveries to the Canary Islands, it can take up to a week for the parcel to be checked for any charges that may be incurred before it is transported on to the Canary Islands. A little patience is therefore required.

If there are any fees such as IGIC and/or AIEM, the Spanish Post Office will charge the applicable taxes and in addition currently charges a fee of €14.42 per delivery.

These fees are then paid to the postman when he delivers the parcel at home or when collecting the delivery from the post office.

Deliveries by transport service providers such as UPS, GLS and DHL Express

Deliveries made by carriers such as UPS, GLS and DHL Express incur significantly higher handling charges, so we do not recommend sending shipments to the Canary Islands via these carriers. Even though delivery by these companies is much faster, you pay a high price for it. Whether it is worth it for urgently needed items is something everyone has to decide for themselves.

These companies also sometimes charge a fee for processing the parcels, even though they are free of any taxes. This procedure is controversial and causes resentment time and again.

 The cheapest option remains the Spanish postal service Correos, which takes over and delivers parcels from contractual partners such as DHL Deutsche Post, Royal Mail and other post companies.

Attention is required for deliveries from Great Britain

Due to Brexit, which came into effect on 1st of January 2021, Great Britain and its countries (except Northern Ireland) are no longer part of the European Economic Area! There are currently no customs duties, but there may be problems if you order certain items in the UK, such as medicines, food or food supplements. These may no longer be imported into Spain without being checked for conformity: Consignments containing such goods will be stopped and will be subject to a high fee to check their marketability in the European Union. Therefore, our advice is not to order such goods from the UK to save yourself trouble, inconvenience and high costs!

Delivery to the Canary Islands

If you want to send a parcel to the Canary Islands, it is best to send it directly by post in the country of departure. Please note that a declaration of contents must be attached to the parcel, but the post offices will help you with this and explain what you need to bear in mind.

Parcel delivery

As a rule, parcels are delivered by the postman/parcel carrier if there is a bell on the street. If the postman does not find you, a collection slip will be left in the postbox and you can collect the parcel from the post office the following day by presenting the collection slip and your ID. Sometimes there is no collection slip in the letterbox, even though the item is at the post office for collection. In this case, you can also pick up the item with the item number and your ID.

In the case of private parcel services, the deliverers usually call in advance to check whether you are at home and the delivery goes smoothly. If they don't find you or you can't be reached by phone, they will contact you again to arrange a new delivery date.

I hope I have been able to enlighten you a bit with this article about the delivery of parcels and orders on the Canary Islands.