What can you take home from the Canary Islands: customs, tobacco, alcohol and IGIC
Before flying home, many people are surprised to find customs channels, one green and one red, at Canary Islands airports, even though the islands are part of the European Union. It's not a mistake: the islands have a special status, and that affects your luggage too. In this article we have gathered from official sources how much you can take home, when you have to declare goods, and how you can reclaim the local sales tax.
Important: allowances and tax rates can change. What you read here is based on the information published in October 2026 by the Spanish tax agency (Agencia Tributaria, AEAT), the European Union, German customs (Zoll), Hungary's tax and customs administration (NAV) and the Canary Islands tax agency (ATC). Before you travel, check the current rules with your own country's customs authority.
Part of the EU, but not for VAT
The Canary Islands are part of the EU and, according to the AEAT, lie within the EU customs territory. However, Article 6 of the EU VAT Directive (2006/112/EC) states that the directive does not apply to the Canary Islands. German customs puts it like this: the islands are part of the customs territory, but not of the VAT or excise territory. In practice, this means that the islands use not Spanish VAT (IVA) but their own sales tax, IGIC (Impuesto General Indirecto Canario), and that on your way home the same tax-free rules apply to you as if you were arriving from outside the EU. The EU's official information portal, Your Europe, says the same.
So you pay no customs duty, but if you go over the allowance, you do pay import VAT and excise duty.
How much you can take home tax-free
The AEAT sets these duty-free allowances for travellers arriving from the Canary Islands, and they are the same as the basic EU rules:
Gifts and other goods: for air and sea travellers, up to €430 in total value per person. For travellers under 15, €150.
Tobacco: 200 cigarettes, or 100 cigarillos (no more than 3 grams each), or 50 cigars, or 250 grams of tobacco. You can combine the types proportionally, but together they cannot exceed the total allowance.
Alcohol: 1 litre of ethyl alcohol of 80% or more, or 1 litre of drinks over 22%, or 2 litres of drinks of no more than 22%, fortified or sparkling wine. On top of that, 4 litres of still wine and 16 litres of beer.
Age: if you are under 17, you can't bring in tobacco or alcohol tax-free.
Medicines: the value of medicines for your personal use does not count towards the €430.
Two common misunderstandings: allowances are per person, and according to German customs, several travellers' allowances cannot be added together. And if a single, indivisible item (a piece of jewellery or a leather jacket, for example) is worth more than the allowance, you pay tax on its full value, not just on the part above the allowance.
If you fly to Hungary or Germany
The EU directive lets individual countries lower certain limits, so it's worth checking the rules of your destination country too:
Hungary: according to the NAV, air travellers can bring 200 cigarettes, but anyone not arriving by air only 40. The limit for under-15s is €150.
Germany: according to the Zoll, the value limit for under-15s is €175. The 250-gram allowance also covers heated tobacco products and water-pipe tobacco.
Spain: the AEAT gives €150 for under-15s.
If you're travelling on to mainland Spain or the Balearics
This point surprises many travellers within Spain: the allowances don't only apply abroad. The AEAT's Canary Islands leaflet specifically warns travellers heading to the Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands that for tobacco carried in the luggage of travellers over 17, only the quantity shown in its table is exempt from tobacco duty and VAT. So on your way to Madrid, Barcelona or Palma, count on the same 200 cigarettes as on your way to Budapest or Berlin.
Green or red channel
According to the AEAT, the green channel is for people with nothing to declare, but customs officers carry out random checks. Walking through the green channel also counts as a declaration that you are not carrying anything that must be declared: if they find something anyway, that is an offence, and in more serious cases smuggling.
You must use the red channel if, for example, you're carrying more than €10,000 in cash, if the value or quantity of your goods exceeds the allowance, or if you're bringing restricted or prohibited goods. You then make an oral declaration (Declaración Verbal de Viajeros) and can choose: pay the tax, give up the goods or take them back out. If the goods are taxable, there is also a short form to fill in at customs.
IGIC, and how to reclaim it
The standard IGIC rate is 7%, and it applies to all goods and services not covered by another rate. Spirits and cigars costing more than €2.50 each are taxed at 15%, and tobacco products (except cigars and cigarillos) at 20%. According to the Canary Islands tax agency's table for travellers, wine and beer are taxed at 7%.
Few people know that tourists can reclaim the IGIC on goods bought in the islands. The scheme is called DIGIC, it is run by the Canary Islands tax agency (ATC), and it is not the same as the Spanish VAT refund (DIVA): that one covers Spanish VAT (IVA), whereas in the Canary Islands DIGIC is the right scheme. The key rules:
Goods only, not services. There is no refund on hotels, restaurants or excursions.
A refund of at least €40. Smaller claims are not accepted.
The shop issues the electronic refund document (DER), always based on an invoice, never on a till receipt.
You validate it at the terminal at the airport or port of the island you are leaving from.
Deadline: the goods must leave the Canary Islands within three months of the invoice date.
There is a condition for EU residents: according to the ATC, the refund is only granted if you prove that you imported the goods at home and paid VAT on them on import; your destination country's customs records this on the invoice. If the proof doesn't arrive within one month of submitting the DER, the claim is treated as withdrawn. You'll find the details and the list of terminals on the ATC's DIGIC page.
Food, flowers and plants: take care here
For these questions we found no clear official rule for travellers that names the Canary Islands explicitly, so we make no categorical claims:
Meat and dairy (Canarian cheese, for example): for travel within the EU, Your Europe says you can carry them for your own consumption. However, no official source names the Canary Islands specifically in this context.
Live plants and cut flowers (strelitzia, for example): the EU plant health regulation treats the Canary Islands as a third country for this purpose, and according to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA), travellers arriving from a third country need a phytosanitary certificate for plants, flowers and fruit. A few fruits are exempt: coconut, dates, durian, bananas and pineapple. Live plants must be declared regardless of quantity and must be free of soil.
If you'd like to take cheese, sausage or plants home, ask your own country's customs authority for a definite answer, or check with customs at the airport before you step into the green channel.
Sand, stones and shells: leave them where they are
This is the souvenir that gets most people into trouble. Sand, stones, shells and fossils taken from beaches and from nature are not an innocent keepsake: according to the Cabildo de Fuerteventura, taking them is an offence under the Spanish law on natural heritage and biodiversity (Ley 42/2007), and it carries a penalty. At the airport the Guardia Civil seizes them: according to a 2022 press release from the Cabildo, 4,533 kilograms of material were seized at Fuerteventura airport in four months, including sand, stones, shells, fossils and rhodoliths. Rhodoliths are the white, popcorn-like calcareous algae that made Fuerteventura's Popcorn Beach famous. The Cabildo's environmental service returns the seized material to nature.
So a pebble or a handful of sand can come to light either at customs or at the security check. The best souvenir is a photo.
What's worth taking home
If it fits within your allowance, the islands' wines, rums and cheeses are the most popular gifts. We have written about Canary Islands wines and wineries here: Grape harvest in the Canary Islands: a wine guide. A few producers that also have a listing with us: Destilerías Arehucas on Gran Canaria, Bodegas El Grifo on Lanzarote and Bodegas Teneguía on La Palma. You'll find cheese dairies in our list of cheese dairies, handmade goods among the craft shops and local produce in the list of markets. For Tenerife's farmers' markets we have a separate article: Farmers' markets in Tenerife: which day each one opens.
You can read about the Canary banana, a favourite thing to pack for many visitors, here: Gold of the Canary Islands: everything about the Canary banana. If you're still planning your trip, these may help too: Do I need travel insurance for the Canary Islands? and Travel apps for the Canary Islands.
Sources: Agencia Tributaria (AEAT), information for travellers (arriving from the Canary Islands, arriving from third countries, customs channels, Declaración Verbal de Viajeros) and the tobacco leaflet for travellers heading to the Spanish mainland; Directives 2006/112/EC and 2007/74/EC; Regulation (EU) 2016/2031; Your Europe (europa.eu), alcohol, tobacco, cash, and meat, dairy and plants; European Commission, Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union; Zoll (zoll.de); NAV traveller information (2026); Gobierno de Canarias; Agencia Tributaria Canaria (ATC), DIGIC; the consolidated IGIC text (Decreto Legislativo 1/2025, BOE); traveller luggage information from the Ministerio de Sanidad and the MAPA (Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación); Cabildo de Fuerteventura (press release of 1 February 2022 on material taken from beaches).
Cover photo (cropped): market hall, Santa Cruz de La Palma. Marc Ryckaert (MJJR), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
