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M. A brings back a watch he bought in the UK to France, by air, value £250, they hold the necessary receipts.

£250 is under the €430 ceiling for French customs

It's their only purchase, is declaration still needed though no duty would be owed?

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... is declaration still needed though no duty would be owed?

No.

Goods you have purchased or received as gifts in a third country*
When entering France, you may bring with you, in your personal luggage*, goods purchased or received as gifts in a third country* without filling out a declaration or paying duties and taxes.
Depending on the case, the value of the said goods must not exceed the amounts listed below: ...

From: https://franceintheus.org/IMG/pdf/trouble_free_travel_with_french_customs-2.pdf

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  • do keep in mind that if your TOTAL exceeds the limit you need to declare EVERYTHING. So if you bring in 431 Euro in goods you need to declare everything making up that 431, if you bring in 429 you don't have to declare anything (unless some of those goods are in specific categories like raw agricultural products).
    – jwenting
    Commented Nov 11 at 14:26
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    Did you paste the wrong URL by accident? The text you quote doesn’t appear anywhere on the page you’ve linked to.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Nov 11 at 15:11
  • @jwenting does that include items you intend to take back out (i.e. tourist/visitor, non-resident citizen bringing a gift or to sell), or items you had bought in EU and/or already paid duty for (i.e. resident)? I'd say close to 100% of international travelers violate this rule otherwise, as phones, laptops, smartwatches, etc all push things above this limit.
    – ave
    Commented Nov 12 at 10:20
  • @ave depends. If you're bringing a clearly used (even if almost new) cellphone for personal use that's fully expected and normal, no need to declare it. If you're bringing 5 of them, still in their boxes and shrink wrapped, you need to declare them. Customs doesn't know about or care or trust your story that they're meant to take back home with you. Would you if you were them? Edge case would be items for personal use purchased in duty free at the departure airport. But there you'd have the receipts to prove that, and even then you can't go over legal limits for say alcohol or tobacco.
    – jwenting
    Commented Nov 12 at 11:02
  • @jwenting my question was not "what's it like in practice", but "what's the legal cutoff".
    – ave
    Commented Nov 12 at 14:20
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In the case of entering France (or other EU countries), you are only obligated to declare items if you exceed the duty free limits.

There may of course be exceptions, but I would assume that this applies to most countries and not just the EU.

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    @PeterM No. They will find out that you are smuggling if you do not declare the item (usually an active decision by going through the green line at the customs checkpoint) and you are then picked out for a random check and they find more stuff in your luggage than what you are allowed to bring duty free.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Nov 10 at 16:12
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    What percentage of people get picked for a random inspection? It is a number between 0% and 100%, but can't be either 100% or 0%. So there is always a chance that you can slip something through. Whether or not this is worth the risk is dependent on what you are smuggling and its value.
    – Peter M
    Commented Nov 10 at 16:17
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    "random" check.
    – Spehro 'speff' Pefhany
    Commented Nov 11 at 1:08
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    @PeterM: What do you think customs should be doing instead? Any policy short of “thoroughly search everybody” has the same problem. Randomly checking a small percentage of entrants achieves a large fraction of the deterrence at a small fraction of the cost.
    – PLL
    Commented Nov 11 at 10:41
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    hi @PeterM it's not really clear what you mean? Every single law, on Earth, is enforced in this way. Surely at times you have gotten away with speeding while driving, or even more serious crimes. Almost everyone has at one time or another taken something through customs, that, was above the official limit, without declaring it to the guys standing there waiting to randomly search people. So what? That's how every law on Earth works, no difference from say shoplifting upwards. (I would encourage you to NEVER TRY THIS unless you are very seasoned. In movies, the hero spy can act cool while he wa
    – Fattie
    Commented Nov 11 at 13:59

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