Andorra customs: allowances, VAT and checks

The border always raises the same questions, and each one has its guide. This is the order they usually come in.

• How much you can bring back from Andorra explains each person's allowance, the one for children and why one item can't be split between several people.
• The allowance calculator checks whether what you're carrying fits, using your own amounts.
• Is there VAT in Andorra? sets out the difference between Andorran IGI and the VAT or TVA you pay when you get home.
• Tax free in Andorra explains how the IGI refund works for people who live abroad, with form 980-A and stamps from both customs posts.

How to declare and what to do with cash are covered further down this page. If you haven't bought anything yet, the page on shopping for electronics in Andorra explains when it pays off.

Each traveller aged 15 or over can bring in goods up to that limit without paying anything. Under-15s, €450. The figure is the same for Spain and France, and it makes no difference whether you travel by car, by bus or by helicopter.

• It can't be split. A €1,400 item doesn't fit between two adults. Spain's tax agency (AEAT) puts it like this: ‘El valor de un bien no es divisible entre varias personas’ (the value of one item can't be divided between several people). France says the same.
• Sets count as one. The parts of a computer or a sound system that go together are a single product, even with separate invoices.
• If you go over, you pay on the total. Not on the part above the allowance. French customs write ‘sur la valeur totale, sans aucun abattement’ (on the total value, with no deduction).

Cases with children, couples and several purchases are worked through in how much you can bring back per person. If you want to run your own numbers, the allowance calculator tells you whether you fit.

An item that goes over the allowance on its own is declared in full. You pay VAT or TVA on its value, and the saving almost disappears.

Take a €1,000 device as an example: declared, with the IGI refund claimed, you end up paying about €5 more than if you had bought it in Spain. Without the refund, the gap grows.

Before comparing shops, check whether the item fits in your allowance. To compare calmly, the shopping in Andorra section has the method and the guides for each product.

Andorra has no tax free like the EU's. What exists is a refund of 90% of the IGI for people who live abroad, only on items over €900 each, with form 980-A and two customs stamps. As that item no longer fits in the allowance, you'll be declaring it anyway.

We go through it step by step in tax free in Andorra, with the time limits set by the regulation.

• Spain. Take the red channel, ‘Algo que declarar’ (goods to declare). On the road from La Seu d'Urgell, the customs post is La Farga de Moles.
• France. Declare at the customs post where you enter and pay the duties and taxes on the full value.

Keep the invoice to hand. It proves the price, and you need it for the warranty. The product guides in the shopping section cover what the warranty includes once you're home.

In Spain, bringing in goods without declaring them is an administrative smuggling offence under Organic Law 12/1995. Below €37,500 it's a minor administrative offence and the fine is 100% to 150% of the value of the goods, with a minimum of €500. From €150,000 it's a crime.

An undeclared €1,000 phone, for example, could cost you a fine of €1,000 to €1,500. That is on top of the tax.

In France, we haven't been able to confirm the current fine. Légifrance marks the article that set it as repealed, and the customs penalties page doesn't load. Check douane.gouv.fr before taking the risk.

Cash is a separate matter. If you carry €10,000 or more, you have to declare it, in Spain as well as in France. You declare it when you leave Andorra and again when you enter.

• If you live near the border. A 1992 customs circular, published in the BOE, cut the allowance to a tenth for people living in municipalities less than 15 km away. The AEAT page, checked in October 2026, gives the general allowance with no such exception. The BOE record doesn't mark the circular as repealed. If you live in that strip, ask at customs.
• The VAT base when you get the IGI back. Neither the AEAT nor French customs explain it for travellers. Our reading, which is an interpretation, follows Article VII of the GATT: the base is the price minus the IGI refunded to you. The cautious option is to work out VAT on the full price. Both figures are in the VAT guide.
• The French fine. Légifrance treats the article that set it as repealed, and French customs publish no other figure.

If you're still deciding what to buy, start with shopping in Andorra and come back here before you pay.