Dutiable by First-Class
An item containing dutiable articles sent on First-Class Package International Service must travel as Registered Mail. A plain small packet holding anything the customs office would assess is the case this catches.
Taiwan
Shipping to Taiwan from the United States
Whoever picks a Taiwan service on the assumption that express means heavy is in for a correction. Priority Mail Express International tops out at 33 lb here, about half the ceiling it carries almost everywhere else, and the ordinary parcel product beats it on weight. That inversion, the addressing rule that wants Chinese on the label, and a duty-free line worth knowing came off the country listing and Taiwan Customs, both read 2026-08-08.
Express ceiling 33 lbListing read 2026-08-08Export leg priced by a person
Express carries less here
Thirty-three pounds on the fast product, forty-four on the ordinary one. The usual order is reversed.
The weight ceilings run low
On most lanes the express product carries the same heavy weight as the ordinary parcel. To Taiwan it does not, and the gap is large enough to change which service a shipment can even use.
| Product | Weight ceiling | Size ceiling | Customs form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priority Mail International | 44 lb | 42 in long, 79 in length plus girth | PS Form 2976-A inside PS Form 2976-E |
| Priority Mail Express International | 33 lb | 36 in long, 79 in length plus girth | PS Form 2976-B inside PS Form 2976-E |
| Airmail M-bags | 66 lb | One direct sack to one addressee | PS Form 2976 |
| First-Class Package International Service | 4 lb | Small-packet limits per the international manual | PS Form 2976 |
| First-Class Mail International | 3.5 oz letters and postcards, 15.994 oz large envelopes | Letter and flat limits | None, unless otherwise required |
| “Global Express Guaranteed” | Listed as suspended since September 29, 2024 | — | — |
A 40 lb box is the trap. It is too heavy for the express product’s 33 lb ceiling, so speed is not on offer for it, and it clears the ordinary parcel’s 44 lb limit with room to spare. The cheap bulk sack, an Airmail M-bag, actually carries the most weight of the three at 66 lb, but only as a single direct sack of like matter to one addressee.
Write the address in Chinese as well
The observations carry an instruction that saves a parcel from wandering. Addresses should be complete and, where possible, written in Chinese characters in addition to English.
A romanized-only address can be sorted, but it leans on a clerk to map it back to the Chinese that the local network runs on, and a busy office does that less reliably than a label that already carries both. Ask the recipient to send their address in Chinese and print it alongside the English rather than instead of it.
One routing detail sits beside it for a small number of destinations. For the outlying Quemoy and Matsu islands the listing recommends adding the words “Via Taiwan” to the address, which keeps an item bound for those islands inside the Taiwanese network rather than misrouted.
Registered Mail, licenses and the duty-free line
The license carve-outs
The addressee needs an import license for all items except two: a gift up to 1,000 US dollars in value for personal or family use, and printed books up to 1,000 US dollars. Both are generous lines by regional standards.
The duty-free value
Taiwan Customs clears a parcel of 2,000 New Taiwan dollars or less free of customs duty, commodity tax and business tax. Tobacco, alcohol and tariff-quota agricultural products are excluded from that exemption.
The two license carve-outs and the duty-free value answer different questions and it is worth keeping them apart. The license lines decide whether the recipient needs a permit to receive the item at all; the 2,000 New Taiwan dollar line decides whether tax is charged once it is admitted. These are the destination’s own figures, from the country listing and Taiwan Customs read on 2026-08-08, and they describe a customs position rather than a shipping price.
What Taiwan turns back
The prohibition list mixes the expected with a few entries a sender would never predict.
- Extracts, essences and concentrates of tea. Not tea leaves as such, but the concentrated forms, an unusual and specific bar into a tea-growing country.
- Banknotes in new Taiwan dollars. The local currency itself may not be mailed in, which catches anyone trying to return cash to a relative.
- Coins over 100 years old. Old coins are treated as protected antiquities rather than ordinary collectibles.
- Cigars, cigarettes and prepared tobacco, alongside radioactive materials and the usual dangerous goods.
The tea and old-coin entries are the ones that trip up collectors and gift senders, because neither reads as dangerous or restricted anywhere else. Check a proposed shipment against the full listing rather than against instinct.
Chinese on the label, a person on the price
The labels this site sells are United States domestic ones, so there is no Taiwan price above and none is implied. A domestic box, including a first hop to a consolidator, prices through the calculator. The export leg is a person’s call: send the carton, the weight, the contents and the Taiwan address, in Chinese where you have it, through freight review, and it comes back with a product that fits the 33 lb express ceiling or the 44 lb parcel one, the right customs form, and a price set by hand.
Common questions
What is the heaviest parcel you can express to Taiwan?
Priority Mail Express International stops at 33 lb to Taiwan, the lowest express ceiling on any of these lanes and roughly half the usual figure. Priority Mail International carries 44 lb, and Airmail M-bags carry 66 lb.
How should a Taiwan address be written?
Completely, and in Chinese characters in addition to English where possible. The listing recommends it, and a label carrying only a romanized address gives the delivery office less to work with than one that also carries the Chinese.
Does a parcel to Taiwan clear duty-free?
Up to a customs value of 2,000 New Taiwan dollars a parcel is exempt from customs duty, commodity tax and business tax. Tobacco, alcohol and agricultural products subject to a tariff quota are excluded from the exemption.
Do you need an import license for Taiwan?
The addressee needs one for all items except two categories: gifts up to 1,000 US dollars in value for personal or family use, and printed books up to 1,000 US dollars. Above those lines a license is the recipient's responsibility.
What is prohibited from being mailed to Taiwan?
Extracts, essences and concentrates of tea; banknotes in new Taiwan dollars; coins over 100 years old; cigars, cigarettes and prepared tobacco; and radioactive materials. Items with dutiable contents on First-Class Package International Service must go by Registered Mail.
Where these rules come from
- USPS, Individual Country Listing for Taiwan — product ceilings including the 33 lb express limit, customs forms, the Chinese-character addressing note, the Registered Mail rule, the license carve-outs and the prohibitions. Read 2026-08-08.
- USPS, International Service Alerts — checked to confirm Taiwan carries no mail suspension, and for the Global Express Guaranteed status. Read 2026-08-08.
- Taiwan Customs, tax exemption for imported postal parcels — the 2,000 New Taiwan dollar duty-free value and the tobacco, alcohol and tariff-quota exclusions. Read 2026-08-08.
The country listing and the customs threshold are each revised without notice. What appears here is what those pages held on 2026-08-08; open them again before packing anything you are unsure of.