Bringing Your Belongings In
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Spain on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Spain to Peru · Bringing your belongings
Peru does not let household goods in free. Menaje de casa carries a single flat tax of 12 per cent of the customs value, and the benefit is conditional on a fact about you rather than about the goods: thirteen consecutive months abroad before you arrive. Short trips back do not break that period, up to thirty days a year. The shipment has to land in a window running from one month before your arrival to six months after, and the benefit cannot be used twice in two years.
At a glance
- Tax rate
- 12 per cent of the customs value
- Time abroad required
- 13 consecutive months before arrival
- Tolerated return visits
- Up to 30 calendar days per year
- Shipment window
- From 1 month before to 6 months after your arrival
- Repeat use
- Not within 2 years
- Family unit
- Head of household, parents, spouse or partner, and children under 18
- Border residents
- Excluded from this regime
Requirements
- The goods must be furniture and household effects, new or used, belonging to the traveller or the family unit
- The traveller must hold a passport or an official document at entry or exit
- At least thirteen consecutive months abroad immediately before arriving
- Occasional returns to Peru of no more than thirty calendar days, consecutive or not, in each year do not break that period
- The shipment must arrive as cargo between one month before and six months after the traveller's arrival
- The benefit must not have been used in the previous two years, counted to the date the simplified import declaration is numbered
- A single flat tax of 12 per cent of the customs value is payable
In detail
Twelve per cent, where the neighbours charge nothing or fifteen
Argentina lets an incoming permanent resident bring household and personal effects in free of tax, and taxes only the tools of a trade. Uruguay lets both in free. Colombia taxes menaje at a flat fifteen per cent and writes its conditions around Colombians returning after two years abroad. Peru sits in the middle at twelve per cent flat, and - unlike Colombia - states the entry conditions in terms of any traveller with a passport rather than in terms of returning nationals.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Spain
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«El menaje de casa, está afecto a un tributo único de 12 % sobre el valor en aduana, determinado por SUNAT conforme a la normatividad vigente y siempre que se cumplan con las reglas siguientes:»Our translation - not official
Household goods are subject to a single tax of 12 per cent on the customs value, determined by SUNAT in accordance with the rules in force and provided the following rules are complied with:
'Tributo único' means this replaces the ordinary import duties and taxes rather than being added to them. It is still a charge, which is the difference from Argentina and Uruguay, where an incoming permanent resident's household goods come in free.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Tax and customs authority. Hosts the consolidated income tax law and issues informes that are binding interpretation.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its own PDF of the income tax law is a scan whose machine-read text is materially corrupt and must not be quoted - use the informes instead. It states that its list of Peruvian-source income is not exhaustive, so that page cannot support a negative claim.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«El viajero debe acreditar una permanencia en el exterior no menor a trece (13) meses consecutivos anteriores a su llegada. Este plazo se tiene por no interrumpido por los ingresos ocasionales al país que tenga el viajero no mayores a treinta (30) días calendario consecutivos o alternados durante cada año.»Our translation - not official
The traveller must prove a stay abroad of not less than thirteen (13) consecutive months before arrival. That period is treated as uninterrupted by occasional entries into the country by the traveller of no more than thirty (30) calendar days, consecutive or alternating, during each year.
This is a continuous-absence test, not a residency test. Someone who has been visiting Peru regularly while preparing the move can fail it without ever having lived here.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Tax and customs authority. Hosts the consolidated income tax law and issues informes that are binding interpretation.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its own PDF of the income tax law is a scan whose machine-read text is materially corrupt and must not be quoted - use the informes instead. It states that its list of Peruvian-source income is not exhaustive, so that page cannot support a negative claim.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«El menaje de casa debe arribar como carga dentro del plazo de un (1) mes antes y hasta seis (6) meses después de la fecha de llegada del viajero.»Our translation - not official
The household goods must arrive as cargo within the period of one (1) month before and up to six (6) months after the date of the traveller's arrival.
Shipping early is as fatal as shipping late. Uruguay's equivalent window is three months before and six after; Peru's front end is a month.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Tax and customs authority. Hosts the consolidated income tax law and issues informes that are binding interpretation.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its own PDF of the income tax law is a scan whose machine-read text is materially corrupt and must not be quoted - use the informes instead. It states that its list of Peruvian-source income is not exhaustive, so that page cannot support a negative claim.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«Es el conjunto de muebles y enseres del hogar, nuevos o usados, de propiedad del viajero y/o su familia, en caso de unidad familiar. La unidad familiar, está constituida por el jefe de familia, padres, cónyuge o conviviente e hijos menores de dieciocho (18) años.»Our translation - not official
It is the set of furniture and household effects, new or used, belonging to the traveller and/or their family, in the case of a family unit. The family unit consists of the head of the family, parents, spouse or partner, and children under eighteen (18) years of age.
An unmarried partner counts, and adult children do not. New goods are inside the definition, which is not true everywhere.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Tax and customs authority. Hosts the consolidated income tax law and issues informes that are binding interpretation.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its own PDF of the income tax law is a scan whose machine-read text is materially corrupt and must not be quoted - use the informes instead. It states that its list of Peruvian-source income is not exhaustive, so that page cannot support a negative claim.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The thirteen-month test is about where you have been, not about what permission you hold, so it can be satisfied before any residence application is decided.
SUNAT publishes a separate page listing which goods count as menaje and a separate procedure page for the declaration itself; we have not read either, so no item-level list or value cap is stated here.
Travellers resident in border zones who cross occasionally are outside this regime entirely and fall under the special frontier-traffic customs destination.
Baggage, as opposed to household goods, has its own tax-free allowances that we have not sourced.
- administersBeneficio para el ingreso del menaje de casa
Superintendencia Nacional de Aduanas y de Administración Tributaria (SUNAT)
About this source
Tax and customs authority. Hosts the consolidated income tax law and issues informes that are binding interpretation.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its own PDF of the income tax law is a scan whose machine-read text is materially corrupt and must not be quoted - use the informes instead. It states that its list of Peruvian-source income is not exhaustive, so that page cannot support a negative claim.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
- administersMenaje de Casa
Superintendencia Nacional de Aduanas y de Administración Tributaria (SUNAT)
About this source
Tax and customs authority. Hosts the consolidated income tax law and issues informes that are binding interpretation.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Its own PDF of the income tax law is a scan whose machine-read text is materially corrupt and must not be quoted - use the informes instead. It states that its list of Peruvian-source income is not exhaustive, so that page cannot support a negative claim.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source