Sending a gift to Spain

I sent a $35.00 sweatshirt to a friend of mine in Madrid. It cost me over $65.00 to send it UPS. When it arrived, they asked my friend to pay over 40 euros as tax for receiving the gift. I told him to refuse since the tax was more than the gift.

Does anyone know the best (cheapest) way to send a small gift to Spain without the recipient having to pay? This really confused me since I had previously sent small gifts to Spain a couple of years ago and no one had to pay this tax.

I appreciate any information anyone can give me.

Thanks,
Marilisa

WHAT?! Really?! That sounds fishy to me. I've sent Christmas gifts every year (at least the years I haven't been in Spain over Christmas) and no one ever told me that they had to pay a tax to receive the package at the post office. Maybe my friends were just being polite in not telling me about this tax but I'd think they'd mention it.

How odd. Saludos, MadridMan

I agree with Madridman...that seems to be a bit odd to me as well...

I have received several packages from the States since living here for the past 3 years. I have never had to pay any sort of tax on them. And, on the package, it was clearly marked that it contained gifts.

You might want to check with UPS to see what their policy is. All of my packages have arrived through standard mail, not parcel post. Maybe the rules apply differently?

I think the same problem exists the other way round from the UK to the US. If you send by standard post as a gift there is generally no tax charged, but if you use UPS or Fedex then often there will be a hefty charge.

I would therefore recommmend always using standard recorded Air Mail post between Europe and the US.

I send things to my friend Carmen all the time and I just send it US MAIL and write a vague description on the international shipping ticket. She has never had to pay anything to get the packages.

Winston

I use U.S. Global Priority to send parcels to the Canary Islands and to Spain and it is very reasonable.
$5.00 for small parcels, $9,00 for medium and per pound for larger.

Thank you all for the messages. I know that next time I will use the U.S. Postal Service. I chose UPS this time because I wanted the gift to arrive quickly for a birthday. I was also a little hesistant about the postal service because when I lived in Madrid in the 1980s and early 90s, many times packages from my family here in the States would arrive torn open and sometimes with things missing.

Right now I've filed a claim/complaint with UPS and am trying to get the sweatshirt back at their expense.

Thanks everyone!