In most cases, you won’t pay import duty or VAT on your belongings, provided the right paperwork is in place before your lorry crosses the border. Get that wrong, and the bill can be substantial.
We’ve been moving British families to Portugal for over 30 years, and customs is the part of the process that causes the most anxiety, and, when things go wrong, the most damage. This is what we know from doing it, not from reading about it.
If you’re still in the early planning stages, our complete guide to moving from the UK to Portugal covers the full picture.
What changed when the UK left the EU
Before January 2021, moving your belongings from the UK to Portugal was straightforward from a customs perspective. It was an intra-EU transfer, no declarations, no duties, no VAT. The lorry drove through.
Since Brexit, the UK is treated as a third country by EU customs law. That means every household removal from the UK to Portugal is now a formal international import. Your belongings need to be declared and cleared at both ends: UK export on departure, Portuguese import on arrival.
In the years immediately after Brexit, enforcement was inconsistent. That’s changed. By 2026, Portuguese customs checks on UK removals will be more thorough, paperwork will be scrutinised more closely, and the consequences of incomplete documentation will be more predictable and more costly.
Transfer of Residence Relief Portugal: the protection most people don’t know about
Here’s the thing that changes everything for most people making this move. If you’re relocating to Portugal permanently, you’re almost certainly entitled to import your entire household contents free of import duty and VAT. It’s called Transfer of Residence Relief (ToR Relief), and it’s been a standard part of every move we handle.
You qualify if:
- You’ve been living outside the EU for at least 12 months before your move
- Your belongings have been owned and used by you for at least six months
- You’re moving to Portugal to take up permanent residence
- Your goods arrive within 12 months of you establishing residency
For the vast majority of British people moving to Portugal, all four conditions are met without any difficulty. The issue we see time and again isn’t eligibility; it’s the paperwork not being completed correctly, or not being submitted at all.
You cannot claim ToR Relief after your goods have already arrived. If a removal company ships your belongings without the ToR Relief application properly in place, you may face import duty and 23% VAT on the full declared value of everything in that lorry. On a typical three-bedroom house move, that is a very significant sum. We have spoken to families who’ve been caught by this, always because the company they used had little or no experience of the Portuguese customs process.
The simplest test when choosing a removal company: ask them directly how they handle Transfer of Residence Relief. A company that does this route regularly will answer immediately and in detail. Any hesitation should tell you something.
The documents involved, and who should be doing what
A specialist removal company handles all of this on your behalf. Here’s what the process actually looks like:
The customs inventory
This is a room-by-room, item-by-item list of everything being shipped. Portuguese customs, the Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira (AT), require more detail than most other EU member states. Where some countries accept broad categories (“furniture,” “kitchen items”), the AT expects individual item descriptions within each category. A company that doesn’t know this, or produces a generic inventory, is creating a problem at the border before the lorry has even left the UK.
We build the inventory during the home survey. Every item is recorded properly from the start, which means there are no surprises when it reaches Portuguese customs.
Keep purchase receipts or valuations for anything high-value, jewellery, artwork, antiques, or high-end electronics. Customs can and do ask for supporting documentation on specific items, and being unable to produce it holds things up.
UK export customs declaration
Before the lorry leaves the UK, an export declaration is submitted to HMRC. This is non-negotiable on all international removals from the UK and forms the official UK-side record of your goods departing the country.
The Certificado de Bagagem
This is the document that catches people out most often, and it’s worth knowing about before you start planning your move. It’s a certificate issued by the Portuguese Consulate in the UK, specifically the Consulate in London, that confirms your change of residence and supports your duty-free import claim. Without it, your shipment can be held at the Portuguese border even if everything else is in perfect order.
The Certificado de Bagagem takes time to obtain. We flag this to every customer early in the process, because leaving it too late is one of the most common and most avoidable reasons a move runs into difficulty.
Portuguese import customs clearance
When your lorry arrives in Portugal, your goods are processed through Portuguese customs. We manage this directly through our own customs agents here in Portugal, not through an unknown third party we’ve handed the job to. That matters because if anything needs resolving at the border, it’s our team dealing with it, not someone we’ve never worked with before.
What actually happens at the border
For Algarve-bound loads, the crossing point from Spain into Portugal is typically Vila Verde de Ficalho in the Alentejo. For central and northern Portugal destinations, Vilar Formoso is the more common route.
Our drivers know these crossings well; they’ve used them hundreds of times.
When the paperwork is in order, the crossing is routine. The driver presents the documentation package, officials check it, and the lorry continues. Most of our moves cross without incident.
When paperwork is incomplete or contains errors, the lorry is held. That can mean a delay of hours while the issue is worked through, or, in more serious cases, goods being held in customs storage while documentation is corrected or additional evidence is obtained. Customs storage accrues fees daily. A delay of even a few days adds up quickly, and it falls on the customer, not the removal company.
This is the situation that a good removal company prevents by getting the paperwork right before the lorry moves. It’s the situation a company without proper Portugal experience creates by not knowing what’s required.
What you can and can’t bring
Under ToR Relief, your household goods and personal effects are covered: furniture, clothing, kitchen equipment, books, instruments, sports equipment, and personal electronics. Everything that constitutes a normal household.
A few items need separate consideration:
Your car
Vehicles aren’t covered by the standard ToR Relief process for household goods. A UK-registered car can be imported under a separate vehicle exemption, but it requires its own customs clearance and, once you’re resident, re-registration in Portugal within 180 days. That involves a Portuguese vehicle inspection (IPO) and a registration tax (ISV) based on engine size and CO2 emissions. Most people use a Portuguese despachante — a local administrative agent — to handle the re-registration paperwork. We can point you in the right direction.
New and unused goods
ToR Relief covers belongings you’ve owned and used for at least six months. Items bought specifically for the move, a new mattress and a new television, aren’t covered and may attract duty and VAT.
The practical advice: if you’re planning to buy anything new before you move, consider buying it in Portugal instead.
Food, drink, and plants
Since Brexit, EU biosecurity rules apply. Meat, dairy, and certain plant products cannot be imported from the UK into Portugal. We’d always recommend not including food or drink in your shipment. It creates unnecessary complications, and the risk of items being confiscated at the border isn’t worth it.
Firearms and restricted items
These require Portuguese authorisation and are subject to strict controls. If you have any doubt about a specific item, ask us before it goes into a box.
If your belongings need to go into storage first
Timing doesn’t always work out perfectly. Your UK completion might happen before your Portuguese purchase goes through. You might want to arrive in Portugal and spend a few months getting to know an area before you commit to a property. These situations are more common than people expect.
When belongings go into storage in Portugal rather than directly to a new address, they’re cleared through customs on arrival and held in a secure facility until you’re ready. What makes this work smoothly is having a removal company that has its own storage at the Portuguese end, so your goods move from the lorry directly into managed storage without a handoff to a separate operator.
Our storage facility is in Lagos, five minutes from the depot. If your timing is uncertain, take a look at what we offer on the storage page: flexible month-to-month contracts, a secure facility, and an English-speaking team. No scrambling to find somewhere at the last minute.
Talk to us before you book anything
Customs doesn’t have to be something you worry about. When it’s handled properly, it’s a process: methodical, well-documented, and uneventful. That’s what thirty years of doing this looks like in practice.
AIM Removals Portugal manages the full customs process on every UK–Portugal move we carry out: ToR Relief, the customs inventory, UK export clearance, the Certificado de Bagagem, and Portuguese import clearance. All of it, handled directly by our own team, at both ends.
Our sister company, Roy Trevor Removals, collects from anywhere in the UK, which means the entire move is managed within the same group from start to finish.
If you have questions about customs before you’re ready to book, what documents you’ll need, how the timeline works, or whether your specific situation is straightforward or complicated, call us. We’re happy to talk it through without any obligation.
For a broader look at the physical move itself, read what moving from the UK to Portugal actually feels like.