Importing
Landed cost calculator
What imported stock actually costs, per unit, once customs has finished with it.
The invoice from your supplier is the smaller half of the story. Duty is charged on the freight as well as the goods, most countries charge import tax on top of the duty, and the carrier adds a fee for advancing all of it on your behalf. This works the whole thing out and shows every line.
Not ready to publish — placeholder data
Every duty rate, tax rate and de minimis threshold behind this page is currently a placeholder set to zero. The figures below are not real. This page is marked noindex and kept out of the sitemap until each value has been read from an official source and dated.
19 values still to verify. Run npm run check:import for the checklist.
The shipment
Enter every amount in the currency you actually pay in. Nothing is converted.
You pay $1,000.00 for the goods and $200.00 to get them into United States — 17% of what you spend never reaches the product. That is $12.00 per unit.
A range, not a promise
The range is flat here because the rate and handling fee in the data have no published spread.
You know what a unit costs to land. The next question is what it earns.
Work out the marginHow the maths works
Duty is charged on the CIF value — the cost of the goods plus insurance and freight — not on the goods alone. Raising your freight cost raises your duty bill, which is why the two are entered separately here.
Import tax is charged on a base that differs by country, and the difference is not cosmetic. The United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada charge it on the duty-inclusive value, so the tax is levied on a number that already contains the duty. Australia charges it on the CIF value. That rule is stored per destination rather than assumed.
De minimis thresholds are two separate numbers, not one. A shipment can fall under the duty threshold and still owe tax, because the tax threshold is often lower — and in several countries it is zero.
The range comes from the real spread of rates inside the tariff heading you selected, plus the spread of published carrier handling fees. It is not a confidence interval and not a guess: it is what the published rates in that heading actually run between.
The rates behind this page
These are placeholders, not real rates. This page is not indexed and is not in the sitemap until every row below carries a source and a date.
| Figure | Value | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
Apparel — knitted or crocheted HTS 6109 / 6110 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Apparel — woven HTS 6203 / 6204 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Footwear HTS 6403 / 6404 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Handbags, luggage and cases HTS 4202 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Jewellery — base metal / imitation HTS 7117 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Consumer electronics and accessories HTS 8517 / 8518 / 8544 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Toys and games HTS 9503 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Home textiles — bedding, towels, curtains HTS 6302 / 6303 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Furniture HTS 9403 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Ceramic and glass tableware HTS 6911 / 6912 / 7013 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Cosmetics and skincare HTS 3303 / 3304 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
Printed matter — books, cards, prints HTS 4901 / 4909 / 4911 | TODO_VERIFY | USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule | — |
United States — No federal import VAT VOLATILE — the US de minimis rule changed during 2025. Verify the current position directly with CBP, not from secondary sources. | TODO_VERIFY | U.S. Customs and Border Protection | — |
United Kingdom — Import VAT UK charges import VAT on the duty-inclusive value, and the VAT threshold differs from the duty threshold. | TODO_VERIFY | HM Revenue & Customs | — |
European Union — Import VAT VAT rate differs by member state; the value here is a single representative rate and the page must say so. | TODO_VERIFY | European Commission — Taxation and Customs Union | — |
Canada — GST Provincial sales taxes may apply on top of GST and are not modelled. Canada applies different thresholds to goods shipped from the United States and Mexico under CUSMA — verify both. | TODO_VERIFY | Canada Border Services Agency | — |
Australia — GST | TODO_VERIFY | Australian Border Force | — |
| Courier disbursement (DHL, FedEx, UPS) | TODO_VERIFY | — | — |
| Customs broker entry fee | TODO_VERIFY | — | — |
Common questions
Is duty charged on the shipping cost as well as the goods?
Usually yes. Most customs authorities assess duty on the CIF value — the cost of the goods plus insurance and freight — rather than on the goods alone. That is why cheap goods on expensive freight can attract far more duty than the invoice value suggests, and why this calculator asks for freight separately rather than folding it into a unit price.
Why is the import VAT larger than the VAT rate applied to my goods?
Because in the UK, the EU and Canada the import tax is charged on the duty-inclusive value: goods, plus freight and insurance, plus the duty itself. The tax is levied on a number that already contains the duty, so the effective cost is higher than the headline rate multiplied by your invoice. This calculator models that per destination rather than assuming one rule everywhere.
Can a shipment be duty-free but still owe tax?
Yes, and it is one of the most common surprises. The duty threshold and the import-tax threshold are separate numbers, and in several countries the tax threshold is zero. A parcel can clear customs with no duty at all and still generate a VAT or GST bill, usually collected by the carrier along with a handling fee.
Why does this show a range instead of one number?
Because one number would be a false promise. Duty depends on the specific classification code your goods are assigned, not the broad category you picked here, and a single tariff heading can contain several different rates. Carriers also charge different amounts for advancing duty on your behalf. The range shown is built from the real published spread within the heading, so it reflects genuine variation rather than an invented margin of error.
Does this convert currencies?
No, deliberately. Saufee runs entirely in your browser with no server and no external calls, so it cannot fetch a live exchange rate, and a hardcoded rate would be wrong within days. Enter every figure in the currency you actually pay in and the arithmetic holds.
Is this customs advice?
No. It is arithmetic applied to figures you entered and to published rates that are linked and dated on this page. Classifying goods correctly is the importer’s legal responsibility, and a category picked from a dropdown is not a classification. Treat the result as an estimate for planning, and confirm the rate for your specific goods before committing to an order.
Related calculators
What this is not
This is a calculator, not customs advice. Classifying goods correctly is the importer’s legal responsibility, and a category chosen from a dropdown is not a classification — the rate that applies to your shipment depends on the specific code it is entered under, its origin, and any trade measures in force at the time. The figures here are estimates produced from inputs you chose and from published rates that are linked and dated above. Confirm the rate for your own goods before committing to an order.