Customs Declarations for Gift Parcels: How to Get the Form Right

You have packed the gift. You have chosen the service. Then the person at the counter asks the question that stops most first-time senders cold: "What's inside, and what's it worth?"

Suddenly you are filling in a customs declaration, a form you have never thought about, with a pen on a string, while a queue forms behind you. Get it right and the parcel disappears smoothly into the system. Get it wrong and it resurfaces weeks later with a holding notice, a duty reassessment or a blunt "return to sender".

TL;DR: Every gift sent by post or courier needs a customs declaration: CN22 up to £270 from the UK, CN23 above it. Marking a parcel "gift" changes its purpose, not its duty position; describe every item with a quantity, value it honestly, and add a phone number that answers. Gifts carried by a traveller follow baggage rules instead, with a ₹75,000 duty-free allowance per adult arriving in India.

Here is what the form actually does, what "gift" really means at customs, and how to fill it in so your parcel keeps moving. This guide covers gift parcels specifically; for country-by-country duty thresholds, prohibited item lists and documentation in depth, see our complete customs guide for international packages.

What a Customs Declaration Actually Is

It is a short, legally binding statement about what is moving across a border: the sender, the recipient, the contents, the quantities and the value. Customs officers in the destination country read it (usually an electronic version transmitted before the parcel even flies) and decide whether the parcel needs inspection, duty, or neither.

That is the part most senders miss. The paper form matters, but the electronic customs data submitted with it matters more, because that is what gets screened first. Royal Mail and most modern postal services generate it automatically when you buy postage online. Buy your label at the counter and you fill the form in by hand.

The information you provide is a legal declaration, not a suggestion. Describing contents accurately is both required and the single biggest thing you can do to avoid delays.

CN22 or CN23? The Two Forms Explained

Postal customs declarations come in two sizes, and which one you use depends on the value of the contents.

• CN22: for parcels valued up to £270 from the UK, or up to €300 from EU countries. A short form, usually attached to the outside of the parcel in a plastic sleeve.
• CN23: for parcels above that threshold. Longer, with more detail on contents, values, origin and recipient, and in the UK it goes into a clear plastic wallet (form SP126) available at any Post Office.

Buy your postage online with Click & Drop or an equivalent service and the platform walks you through the fields and prints the declaration for you. The form is not the obstacle people fear; it takes about three minutes when you know what goes in each field. The next two sections cover exactly that.

Does Marking a Parcel as a Gift Avoid Customs Charges?

This is the myth that causes the most trouble, so let us be precise.

A gift declaration changes the purpose of a shipment. It does not, by itself, remove customs obligations. Whether duty applies depends on the destination country's rules and the parcel's value.

Sending to India makes the distinction sharp, because the rules differ by transport method:

• By post, gifts up to ₹5,000 in value per consignment clear duty-free. Above that, duty applies at roughly 36% all-in for most goods, billed to the recipient.
• By courier, the gift exemption was withdrawn in December 2019. Only life-saving medicines and rakhi count as exempt gifts; everything else attracts duty regardless of the gift marking.
• Carried by a traveller, gifts fall under the Baggage Rules 2026: each arriving adult can bring new goods worth up to ₹75,000 duty-free, with a flat 10% duty on the excess. Goods carried for someone else must be declared if they exceed the allowance.

Other destinations set their own lines: the US allows personal gifts up to $100 duty-free, the UK up to £39, Australia allows most imports under AUD 1,000 without duty. And marking a purchased item as a gift to dodge duty is not a loophole; it is customs fraud, and screening systems flag it routinely.

How to Describe Your Gift: The Part Worth Thirty Seconds

Vague descriptions are the most common reason gift parcels get pulled for manual inspection. "Gift", "presents", "personal items" and "Diwali box" all fail, because they describe nothing.

A usable description names each type of item, with quantity. Compare:

Three habits cover almost every parcel:

1. One line per type of item, with a quantity.
2. Material or category where it helps, cotton versus silk, book versus printed matter.
3. Honesty about food, batteries and liquids, the three categories screening systems look at hardest.

How to Value a Gift Honestly (Without Overthinking It)

Declare what the items would cost to buy. For new gifts, that is the receipt price. For used personal items, a fair second-hand value. For handmade things, the cost of the materials is a reasonable guide.

Do not declare zero. "Priceless, handmade by grandma, value nil" reads as evasion, and undervaluation is one of the top reasons parcels get reassessed: customs re-prices the contents, charges duty on their figure, and often adds a penalty for the trouble. Keep receipts or screenshots for anything valuable, because they settle valuation questions instantly if questions come.

The reverse mistake, over-declaring out of caution, mostly just costs your recipient duty they may not have owed. Buy-able value, stated plainly, is the whole game.

What Changes When a Traveller Carries the Gift

There is no CN22 in a suitcase. When your gift travels with a verified traveller through a platform like TravelCargo, the customs framework shifts from postal declarations to baggage rules, and responsibility sits with the people, not the platform.

What that means in practice:

• The traveller walks the parcel through customs in their own baggage. Within the destination's duty-free allowance (₹75,000 of new goods per adult arriving in India, for example), a typical gift box clears without duty.
• Goods carried for someone else must be declared if asked. If a customs officer in Delhi asks whether the suitcase contains anything belonging to another person, the traveller answers honestly. A screenshot of the in-app chat describing the arrangement demonstrates good faith in about ten seconds.
• Both sides carry responsibility. The sender guarantees the contents are legal, accurately described and safe to carry. The traveller has the right to inspect the parcel before accepting it, and should refuse anything sealed against inspection, misdescribed or prohibited.
• Who pays duty on any excess is agreed in advance, in writing, before the handover.

If you are weighing traveller-based delivery against courier and postal options generally, our comparison of courier, post and traveller delivery breaks down the costs and trade-offs, and our peer-to-peer vs traditional couriers comparison covers the responsibilities on both sides in detail.

Seven Mistakes That Get Gift Parcels Held

1. Writing "gift" as the entire description.
2. Understating value, or declaring none, to keep duty away.
3. Omitting the recipient's phone number, which destination postal and courier partners use for every query. In India, the recipient's full name must also match their ID for delivery.
4. Sending food that is unpackaged, fresh or past its date without checking the destination's food import rules.
5. Including perfume, aerosols or loose lithium batteries that postal and airline rules restrict.
6. Forgetting that the recipient may owe duty and a handling fee, and letting that surprise sour the gift.
7. Treating a traveller's suitcase as a declaration-free zone. The obligation moves to the traveller and the baggage channel; it does not vanish.

Before You Hand Over the Parcel: A 60-Second Checklist

• Every item permitted in the destination country (check the India Post prohibited articles list for India, or the destination customs authority)
• Description itemised with quantities
• Values realistic, receipts kept
• Correct form (CN22 up to £270, CN23 above) and electronic data submitted
• Recipient's full legal name, address with postal or PIN code, and a working phone number
• Food sealed and in date; nothing flammable, leaking or battery-loose
• For traveller delivery: contents inspected, arrangement and fee agreed in writing, duty-on-excess question settled

FAQ: Customs Declarations for Gifts

Do I need a customs declaration for a gift? Yes, whenever the gift crosses a border by post or courier. A gift declaration may reduce or delay duty depending on the destination's thresholds, but it never removes the requirement to declare the contents and value.

What value should I declare on a gift parcel? The realistic purchase price of the contents, or fair second-hand value for used items. Never zero, never inflated, and keep proof of value for anything expensive.

Does the recipient pay customs duty on gifts? Usually, yes, when duty applies. Postal and courier services bill import duty and handling fees to the recipient before delivery. For traveller-carried gifts within the destination's baggage allowance, such as ₹75,000 per adult arriving in India, nothing is owed.

What is the difference between CN22 and CN23? CN22 is the short declaration for parcels up to £270 (UK) or €300 (EU). CN23 is the detailed form for higher-value parcels. Your postal service generates either automatically when you buy postage online.

Can I write "gift" on the customs form and skip the details? No. "Gift" answers why the parcel is travelling, not what is inside, and customs needs the what. Describe each item with a quantity, then mark the gift box if the form has one.

The customs form is three minutes of honest paperwork standing between your gift and its recipient. Describe what is inside, value it properly, and give the destination a phone number that answers. For thresholds by country, prohibited items and documentation in full, start with the complete TravelCargo customs guide. And if a traveller is carrying your parcel, see how the marketplace works before the handover.