Buying online from the Canary Islands: IGIC, AIEM, the DUA and the 150-euro exemption

A parcel sent from Madrid to Corralejo never leaves Spain, and yet it is an import. The Canary Islands are inside the European Union's customs union and outside its VAT area, so a mainland shop can sell without VAT and the islands tax the parcel on arrival with the taxes of their own regime: the IGIC and, for some goods, the AIEM. Three things decide almost every case: the 150 euros up to which no IGIC is paid, the rate of the goods, which runs from zero to 20 per cent, and the fee a carrier charges for a declaration that the buyer is allowed to file without one. This guide follows a parcel through each of them as the rules stand in October 2026, including the customs duty that purchases from outside the European Union have paid since July and the regional government's request to end the 150-euro exemption. Quotations are in Spanish with the reading in English.

Every parcel is an import

The Act that governs the IGIC calls the rest of the world territorios terceros, third territories, and its list begins at home: la Península, Islas Baleares, Ceuta, Melilla, cualquier otro Estado miembro de la Unión Europea o terceros países, the Peninsula, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, any other Member State of the European Union or third countries. An import is la entrada de bienes en las Islas Canarias, procedentes de territorios terceros, cualquiera que sea el fin a que se destinen o la condición del importador, the entry of goods into the Canary Islands from third territories, whatever they are for and whoever the importer is (Ley 20/1991, article 8). The taxpayer is the person the goods are for, the buyer and not the shop (article 21). Nor does it matter who sells: a second-hand camera bought from a private person in Valencia is an import like any other.

On the seller's side the same parcel is an export. The VAT Act leaves the Canary Islands outside the territory of that tax (article 3) and exempts Las entregas de bienes expedidos o transportados fuera de la Comunidad por el transmitente, the supplies of goods dispatched or transported outside the Community by the seller (Ley 37/1992, article 21). A shop that ships to the islands itself can therefore sell without VAT; one that charges its ordinary price, VAT included, leaves the buyer paying mainland VAT and, on arrival, the IGIC as well. It is worth asking for the price without VAT before paying. The opposite journey, an island business that sells to the mainland or to the rest of the Union, is the subject of our note on invoicing EU clients from a Canary business, and the two taxes are set side by side in IGIC vs IVA.

Because every entry is an import, every parcel has to be declared: Cualquier bien que se introduzca en las Islas Canarias deberá ser objeto de una declaración de importación, any good brought into the Canary Islands must be the subject of an import declaration, made by the importer or by an authorised representative (regional management regulation, Decreto 268/2011, article 88). The classic declaration is the DUA, the single administrative document. The IGIC and the AIEM are run by the Canary Tax Agency; customs duty, where there is any, is collected by the State's Tax Agency.

Up to 150 euros: no IGIC, and a declaration without tax

The Act exempts Las importaciones de bienes cuyo valor global no exceda de 150 euros, imports of goods whose total value does not exceed 150 euros (article 14.11). The figure has been 150 euros since 29 June 2017; before that it was 22. Three kinds of goods are left out whatever they cost: alcoholic drinks (tariff codes 22.03 to 22.08), perfumes and eau de cologne, and tobacco, which on the Canary Tax Agency's own list includes heated tobacco, liquids for electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches.

What counts is the price of the goods alone. The regional order on these parcels says that el valor global se refiere al valor intrínseco de los bienes, pero sin que se deban incluir otros conceptos como el de los impuestos, gastos de transporte o de despacho, the total value means the intrinsic value of the goods, without adding taxes, transport or clearance costs (Order of 29 July 2016, article 1). The parcel is looked at as a whole: one addressee, one transport document, and everything in it added together. An order of 149 euros with 12 euros of delivery is inside the exemption; two items of 90 euros in the same box are not.

An exempt parcel is still declared, on a short electronic form called H7, and with it no se liquida ningún impuesto, no tax is assessed, in the words of the Canary Agency, which speaks of its own taxes: the customs duty on parcels from outside the Union, explained below, is charged apart. The carrier may file it, and carriers authorised by the Agency may even do so without the buyer's tax number, on condition that the parcel travels with all costs paid and that nothing is charged to the addressee for the H7. The buyer may always file it personally, with Cl@ve, a digital certificate or an electronic DNI, and the order obliges carriers to warn of that possibility de una forma expresa, clara, correcta y comprensible, expressly, clearly, correctly and comprehensibly.

Presents between private persons have their own, lower limits. A parcel sent free of charge by one individual to another is exempt up to 110 euros when it comes from the Peninsula or another EU country and up to 45 euros from anywhere else, provided it is occasional and for personal use (Ley 20/1991, article 14; Real Decreto 2538/1994, article 25).

Above 150 euros: IGIC on everything

The exemption is a threshold, not an allowance: a parcel worth 151 euros pays IGIC on the 151. In fact it pays on a little more, because the taxable amount is what the Act calls the customs value of the goods, plus the delivery, insurance and similar costs up to their first destination in the islands, plus any other duty charged on the import except the IGIC and the AIEM themselves (article 25).

The rate is the one the same goods bear when they are sold in the islands: Las importaciones de bienes serán gravadas a los tipos de gravamen establecidos para las entregas de bienes de la misma naturaleza, imports are taxed at the rates set for supplies of goods of the same kind (Canary consolidated text, Decreto Legislativo 1/2025, article 32). El tipo general en el impuesto general indirecto canario es el 7 %, the general rate is 7 per cent, and around it there are rates of zero, 1, 3, 5, 9.5, 15 and 20 per cent. The Agency publishes a table of the goods most often bought online: clothes, footwear and bags at 3 per cent, phones, computers, toys and cosmetics at 7 per cent, books and bicycles at zero, perfume at 15 per cent.

The AIEM: a tax with no small-value exemption

The second tax is less known. The AIEM, the Arbitrio sobre Importaciones y Entregas de Mercancías, is un impuesto estatal indirecto que contribuye al desarrollo de la producción de bienes en Canarias, a State indirect tax that contributes to the development of the production of goods in the Canaries (Ley 20/1991, article 65). It taxes a closed list of goods, those that island industry also makes, both when they are produced here and when they are imported; since local production is in most cases exempt, in practice it falls on what arrives from outside. The list and its rates of 5, 10 and 15 per cent are in the second annex of the Canary consolidated text, which in October 2025 replaced the regional Act of 2014, and the European Union authorises the advantage for local products until 31 December 2027 (Council Decision (EU) 2020/1792).

Roasted coffee is on the list at 15 per cent, chocolate, sausages and candles at 10 per cent, chairs and sofas, curtains, soap and detergents at 5 per cent, printed photo albums and greeting cards at 15 per cent. And this tax has no small-value exemption. Until 2017 the Act carried the low-value exemption over to the AIEM; the reform that raised the figure to 150 euros removed that reference (article 73), and the Agency says so plainly: an H7 can never be used for these goods al no existir exención a AIEM por bajo valor, because there is no low-value exemption from the AIEM.

So a box of coffee capsules bought for 60 euros, delivery included, owes nothing in IGIC and 9 euros in AIEM, and it cannot travel on the tax-free H7. It needs a declaration with payment, and that is where a carrier's fee can exceed the tax.

Who files, and what it costs

Above the exemption, or with AIEM goods at any value, somebody has to file a declaration and pay before the parcel is released. The buyer can do it without an agent. The Agency's simplified import form for natural persons covers IGIC on parcels over 150 euros and AIEM from any amount: private individuals may use it for goods from the Union or from third countries, sole traders only for goods from the Union. It is filed online, it produces a payment slip (model 032), and the release is automatic once the slip is paid. For parcels that come by post there is another route, model 040, open only to private individuals and only for goods from the Union delivered by Correos, and the two routes cannot be combined.

Some goods can never be cleared by the buyer: tobacco, alcohol subject to excise duty, protected species, and anything that needs a health, veterinary or pharmaceutical check. They go on a full declaration filed by a customs representative.

What the buyer owes the Administration is the tax and nothing else: El interesado solo deberá abonar a la Administración el importe de los impuestos devengados con ocasión de la importación, the person concerned only has to pay the Administration the taxes accrued on the import, an amount that the Agency calls independent of whatever the postal operator or the carrier may charge under its own contract. Those charges are private prices, and each carrier publishes its own. In the 2026 tariff of Correos for the Canaries, handling the import declaration of a parcel from the Peninsula or another EU country costs 15.43 euros, IGIC included, and that of a parcel from outside the Union 23.34 euros plus 5.54 euros of warehouse handling.

Whoever files, keep the invoice and the proof of payment: Durante los cuatro años siguientes a la compra es posible que le requieran esta documentación, for four years after the purchase you may be asked for these documents, the Agency warns.

What each parcel pays

A worked order: 220 euros

A smartwatch priced at 220 euros is ordered from a shop on the mainland, which deducts the VAT and charges 12 euros for delivery. The parcel is over the exemption. Its taxable amount is 232 euros and the rate, on the Agency's table, 7 per cent: 16.24 euros of IGIC. If the buyer files the simplified form, that is the whole cost. If the parcel comes by Correos and Correos files the declaration, its 15.43 euros are added and the import costs 31.67 euros.

The same 220 euros spent on an office chair, with the same delivery, pay IGIC at 3 per cent, 6.96 euros, and AIEM at 5 per cent, 11.60 euros: 18.56 euros in all. And if the watch had cost 149 euros there would have been no tax and no payment slip, only the H7.

From outside the European Union: 3 euros an item

Parcels from China, the United Kingdom or the United States follow the same IGIC and AIEM rules: the Agency reminds buyers that every entry of goods is an import independientemente del origen de la mercancía, whatever the origin of the goods. What changed in 2026 is customs. Until June a parcel worth up to 150 euros from a third country paid, as a rule, no customs duty anywhere in the Union. Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 abolished that relief and, as a transitional measure from 1 July 2026 to 1 July 2028, put in its place un derecho de aduana de 3 EUR por artículo contenido en un envío cuyo valor intrínseco no supere un total de 150 EUR, a customs duty of 3 euros for each item in a consignment whose intrinsic value does not exceed 150 euros in total. The State Tax Agency, which runs customs, charges it for each line of the declaration, and its note of 30 April 2026 leaves no doubt about the islands: Estas medidas son igualmente aplicables a compras de consumidores en Canarias, these measures apply equally to purchases by consumers in the Canaries. Over 150 euros the ordinary tariff applies, and the duty is part of the amount on which the IGIC is calculated.

An exemption the islands have asked to end

The 150 euros are written in a State Act, and the Canaries cannot change them: their own powers over the IGIC reach the exemptions of internal operations, the rates, the special regimes and the formal obligations, not the exemptions on imports (Ley 22/2009, eighth additional provision). In June 2026, days before the customs change took effect, the regional finance minister said that the Canary Government had asked the Ministry of Finance to remove the exemption, as local retailers had been demanding. On the day this note was closed, 6 October 2026, the Act still read 150 euros in the Official Gazette's consolidated text, and the national parliament that would have to amend it had been dissolved that same day, with a general election called for 29 November. Until an Act or a decree-law says otherwise, the rules are the ones described here.

Sending it back: the refund

A buyer who returns a distance purchase can recover the import taxes, under conditions that are easy to miss. The right belongs to importers who are not acting as traders or professionals, and it covers the IGIC and the AIEM paid on goods for which the consumer's right of withdrawal is exercised (Ley 20/1991, articles 48 bis and 85). That right lasts durante un periodo de catorce días naturales, for a period of fourteen calendar days, counted from the day the goods are received (consumer protection Act, articles 102 and 104). The regional regulation then sets two short clocks: the goods must leave the islands en un plazo de tres días desde la fecha de desistimiento, within three days of the date of withdrawal, and the refund must be requested within un mes desde el abono de la cuota, one month of paying the tax (Decreto 268/2011, article 126). If the Agency has not answered a month after the request, it is deemed refused, and the refund carries no interest. A return that the shop accepts after the legal period, or a contract that is annulled or terminated after it, does not open this route.

If the parcel is for a business

A trader or professional who imports goods for the business recovers the IGIC in the periodic return like any other input tax, provided the goods serve taxed activity (Ley 20/1991, article 28). The supporting document is not the supplier's invoice but el documento en el que conste la liquidación practicada por la Administración, the document that records the assessment made by the Administration (article 31), so the import declaration and its payment slip belong in the accounts. The AIEM is not input tax: for a business that resells what it imports it is part of the cost of the goods, and the Act refunds it only in particular cases, such as goods sent out of the islands again (article 85). Retailers under the special regime for retail traders are the exception to the first rule: their sales carry no IGIC, and their imports for resale bear a surcharge instead (Decreto Legislativo 1/2025, article 70).

Three practical points follow.

• A business is identified by its EORI number. The declaration asks for it as well as for the Spanish tax number.
• A company cannot use the simplified form. That form is for natural persons, so a company files a full declaration, itself or through an authorised representative.
• An importer who lodges a guarantee can pay later. In deferred payment el plazo de pago será de sesenta días naturales a contar desde la fecha de contracción de la deuda, the period for payment is sixty calendar days from the date the debt is entered, and no interest is charged in that period (Decreto 268/2011, article 108).

What our advisers do

Our tax advisers in Caleta de Fuste and Costa Calma map the obligations of a business under the Canary regime, prepare its IGIC returns, where the tax paid on imports is recovered, and represent clients before both tax agencies when a query or a requirement arrives. The service is described on the tax advisory page, and a first meeting can be booked online.

Common questions

Is there a customs border between the mainland and the Canaries?

For customs duty, no: the islands are inside the Union's customs territory, and goods from the Peninsula or another EU country pay none. For indirect tax, yes: the islands are outside the VAT area, every parcel is an import for the IGIC and has to be declared.

My order is 149 euros plus delivery. Is it over the limit?

No. The 150 euros are the intrinsic value of the goods in the parcel, without transport, taxes or clearance costs. Two items that add up to more than 150 euros in one parcel are over it.

The carrier asks for a fee to clear my parcel. Do I have to pay it?

The tax is due in any case. The fee is the price of a service you can decline: you may file the declaration yourself: the H7 for an exempt parcel, where the carrier is obliged to warn you of that possibility, or the simplified form when there is tax to pay. Tobacco and alcohol are the main goods a buyer cannot clear personally.

I returned the goods. Can I get the IGIC back?

Yes, if you bought at a distance as a consumer, withdrew within the legal fourteen days, the goods left the islands within three days of the withdrawal and you ask for the refund within a month of having paid the tax. It is paid by bank transfer, without interest.

Is the 150-euro exemption going to disappear?

The Canary Government asked the State to remove it in June 2026, but the figure is in a State Act and on 6 October 2026 it was still in force. Until that Act is changed, parcels worth up to 150 euros pay no IGIC.

Facts verified in October 2026 (Ley 20/1991, articles 8, 14, 21, 25, 28, 31, 48 bis, 65, 67, 73, 82 and 85; the Canary Islands' Decreto Legislativo 1/2025, articles 32, 34, 70, 92 and 94 and its second annex; Real Decreto 2538/1994, article 25; Decreto 268/2011, articles 88, 108 and 126; the regional Order of 29 July 2016 as amended in 2021; Ley 37/1992, articles 3 and 21; Ley 22/2009, eighth additional provision; the consumer protection Act, articles 102 and 104; Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 and Council Decision (EU) 2020/1792; the Canary Tax Agency's pages on the H7 form, the simplified import form, model 040, the AIEM and the rates of frequent goods, and the State Tax Agency's note of 30 April 2026, all as they read on 6 October 2026; the 2026 tariff published by Correos for the Canaries; the regional government's request as reported in the press on 27 June 2026). The orders in the examples are invented to show the method; this note is general information, not advice on a particular purchase.