Anything coming into the EU without exception (other than a letter,…strictly enforced) …is subject to TVA, (previously there was a floor limit of about €22?) and customer duty, if applicable, and sorry, no exceptions are made for presents. The killer is the handling charge levied by carrier to undertake the collection of such taxes…varies from a flat charge of €6 upwards. However regular commercial dispatchers…eg e-commerce operators can register on IOSS, a pan EU customs system that allows a sender to account directly to the relevant State for TVA and duties…in future this amount will be added at the “basket stage”, this automated system should avoid the recipient being charged significant handling fees.
However private senders cannot use this so their receipients will have no option but to pay fees…thus a scarf costing say £17 (and questionable how easy it will be to buy vat free from an ordinary UK high street retailer) with a €20 equivalent will have TVA added of say €4, (hopefully no customs fee “cos of vaunted trade deal), but a (LaPoste) handling fee of a min of €6…plus of course the original postage cost. So you might end up paying “VAT” twice and costs …makes as small present expensive from UK…
or at least this is what a small trader told me when I asked for an outline of how the new regime post 1st July might work out in practice!!
Time will tell, it might be different in practice once it all beds down, all we can do is hope.