Mini parcels, the 2 euro contribution has been abolished

It was supposed to serve, in the words of the Government, "to cover administrative costs related to customs compliance" on parcels arriving from countries outside the European Union. In recent months, however, the Italian tax of 2 euros on non-EU shipments up to 150 euros has become a burden for the executive, forced to postpone it from decree to decree and to cover the lost revenue each time.

Scheduled from January 2026, it was postponed to July, then to October, to December and finally to January 1, 2027. Now, with article 30 of the budget bill, it is definitively canceled even before its debut, with the repeal of paragraphs 126, 127 and 128 of last year's budget.

The explanatory report explains why with the new Union Customs Code, Regulation 2026/2108 of 16 September. The technical report instead puts the numbers in line. When it was introduced, the contribution was worth 245 million per year in budget estimates.

The updated estimate has fallen to 91.3 million, because in the meantime the market has changed: from 1 July 2026 the customs exemption below 150 euros has disappeared and the European duty of 3 euros has arrived. Projecting the July and August Customs data onto the year, shipments subject to the contribution stop at 61.7 million. Excluding a 7.6% drop due to the price increase and 20% tax avoidance, at 2 euros per pack the lost revenue is 91.3 million per year.

In the three months following the arrival of the duty, parcels declared in customs systems fell on average by more than 60%, according to a Commission official. However, the Union still receives "5 million items a day", after the 5.9 billion parcels imported last year, and in coordinated customs checks 60% of the products were found to be non-compliant.