Because VAT is due on everything, the question in the EU is never "will I be charged" but "how". Some carriers collect at the door with a flat fee, some hand the parcel to the national post which adds its own, and some lines pre-collect so that the parcel simply arrives. The agent's quote may or may not say which — if it matters to you, that is a question for support before you pay the freight.
The consequence is that advice from somebody in a different member state can be confidently wrong for you. A line that arrives smoothly in the Netherlands can sit for three weeks in another country with the same rules, because the difference is the handling at the end rather than the regulation.
The practical approach is the same everywhere: consolidate so you are assessed once, quote the finished parcel, and ask your own country's community which lines actually behave rather than which are cheapest on the quote screen.
Where the current number lives
No threshold, rate or transit time is printed on this page. Rules for goods from China have moved more than once lately, and a figure written into a web page is wrong within a season while carrying on ranking — at which point somebody budgets against it. The authority that owns the number is here:
What to do differently because of it
Ask your own country, not the continent
The rules are common and the handling is national. The useful answer comes from somebody who receives parcels where you do.
Consolidate, because VAT is unavoidable
You cannot be under a threshold, so the only lever left is being assessed once rather than three times.
Ask whether a line pre-collects
A line that collects VAT up front arrives without a doorstep transaction. Whether that is worth paying for is yours to decide, but it is worth knowing which you picked.
The rest of the process is the same everywhere
Where you live decides the customs half. The ordering half does not change: open a find's link, pay for the item, check the QC photos while it is still in China, and ship once you have enough in the warehouse to make the freight worth it. That is the first order checklist, and the reasoning behind it is in how Litbuy works.
Somewhere else
The other destinations
Questions
Is there a value below which I pay nothing?
Not for VAT. The EU's low-value VAT exemption was removed, so VAT is due from the first euro. Customs duty is separate and applies above a higher value — the Commission page linked above holds the current figures and the links to each member state's authority.
Why did my friend in another EU country have a different experience?
Because the rules are common but the handling is national. Who collects the VAT, what they charge for doing it, and how fast a parcel moves after it clears are all decided locally.
Which line is best into Europe?
Into which country? That is not pedantry — it is the whole answer. Quote your finished parcel for your own address and read the list, then sanity-check it against people who receive parcels where you live.
Does the agent handle my VAT?
Sometimes a line pre-collects it, which is different from the agent handling it. Either way, whether duty is due and what it is are between you and your national customs authority; no agent insures against a charge.