Your household goods to Peru: the 12% tributo único and the thirteen-month rule
Your household goods may enter Peru as menaje de casa, but not tax-free: you pay a single levy of 12% on the customs value, including freight and insurance. The container must arrive between one month before and six months after your own arrival, and you must have lived abroad for the thirteen months before.
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Your household goods may enter Peru, but you pay tax on them. SUNAT, the tax and customs authority, charges a single levy of 12% on the customs value of menaje de casa. That value is the value of the goods plus freight and insurance, and SUNAT sets it. Three conditions apply: the goods arrive between one month before and six months after your own arrival, you lived abroad for the thirteen months before, and you have not used the scheme in the last two years.
| Condition or rule | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Levy | 12% on the customs value (goods, freight and insurance) | regulation, art. 14 |
| Arrival of the cargo | from 1 month before to 6 months after your arrival | art. 15 a |
| Residence abroad | at least 13 consecutive months before your arrival | art. 15 b |
| Short visits to Peru | do not interrupt the 13 months if together they last at most 30 days a year | art. 15 b |
| Repeat use | not if you used the scheme in the last 2 years | art. 15 c |
| Excluded | vehicles, boats, weapons; plants and animals without permission | art. 4 |
What counts as household goods?
Furniture and household items, new or used, belonging to you and your family. According to SUNAT the family is the head of the household, the parents, the partner and the children under eighteen. The regulation lists among other things furniture, bed linen, tableware, kitchen utensils, decorations and paintings, household tools, televisions and music equipment, bicycles and toys.
Some goods come with a number:
- household electrical appliances: one of each type;
- books: one copy per title;
- three rugs or tapestries;
- one computer with peripherals, one fax, one telephone;
- one piece of gym equipment;
- one hundred used CDs, DVDs, records and cassettes in total.
Where no number is given, the quantity must fit the size of the family, and be varied enough that nobody thinks you intend to trade.
What may not come as household goods?
Article 4 excludes cars, motorcycles, campers, trailers, boats and aircraft, and their parts. For your car the normal import rules apply; see car and driving licence. Seeds, plants, animals and animal products are also excluded, unless the competent authority gives permission. Your dog or cat travels with its own certificate; see pet to Peru. Also excluded: weapons and ammunition, and objects of historical or cultural value to Peru without permission.
Where can the thirteen months go wrong?
If you first spend a few months looking around Peru, count carefully. The thirteen months abroad only stay intact if your visits to Peru last at most 30 days a year in total. A ninety-day scouting trip in the year before your move can therefore cost you the scheme.
Plan the shipping as well. The goods must arrive as cargo within the window of one month before to six months after the day you enter the country. If the container arrives too early or too late, it falls outside the scheme.
How does customs clearance work?
At the customs office where your goods come in, you ask for the form for the simplified import declaration, the Declaración Simplificada de Importación, and fill it in. Bring:
- your passport;
- the transport document from the carrier;
- the volante de despacho from the warehouse where the goods are stored;
- the insurance policy, if your goods are insured;
- a permit from the competent authority for restricted goods;
- a notarial power of attorney if someone else handles it for you.
The customs officer states the amount in dollars; you pay in soles at a bank. Customs then inspects your goods physically. If everything is in order, you get the release and collect your household goods from the warehouse.
When to send the container off relative to your own journey is in the route to Peru.
In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Peru or go straight to step 4.2 in the open plan.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.
- SUNAT — importing menaje de casa, the 12%, the deadlines and the documents — gob.pe
- Regulation on luggage and household goods (Decreto Supremo 182-2013-EF), articles 4, 14 and 15 — sunat.gob.pe
- SUNAT — the list of goods that count as menaje, with the quantities — sunat.gob.pe
- SENASA — animals only with a health certificate from the country of origin — gob.pe
- SUNAT — the requirements for used vehicles, which do not count as household goods — gob.pe
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