ImportRules

Import duty & VAT calculator

What landing your goods really costs: customs value, duty, anti-dumping and VAT; the arithmetic in one place. You look up the rate, the calculator does the rest. Runs in your browser.

Find your rate first. Duty rates live in the EU TARIC database per product code; anti-dumping measures sit on top. This page calculates once you know them; it does not guess a rate, because a wrong rate is a wrong decision.

The calculation

Two different bases, and they are not the same size. Ad valorem duty is charged on the customs value. The main rule for that is the transaction value: the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the customs territory of the Union, adjusted where the Code says so; where the transaction value cannot be used, the alternative methods apply in the order the Code sets out. Transport and insurance up to the point where the goods enter the EU customs territory are part of that value; transport after that point expressly is not.
Import VAT is charged over a wider base: the customs value, plus the duties and other charges due by reason of importation (but not the VAT itself), plus the incidental costs up to the first place of destination in the member state of importation, which is the place shown on the consignment note or other import document, or failing that the place of the first transfer of cargo in that member state. Price reductions the customer already holds at the time of import, and discounts for early payment, come off again. So the import duty itself sits inside the VAT base, and a truck leg from the port to your warehouse raises the VAT and leaves the duty alone. Put it in the onward-transport field and the calculator keeps the two bases apart; leave it at zero and nothing changes from what this page told you before.
Who owes the import VAT is left to the member state of importation to designate. In the Netherlands that is the declarant or the importer; with an Article 23 licence the payment moves from the border to the periodic VAT return, which changes the cash flow, not the amount.
Source: Union Customs Code Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, Art. 70 (transaction value; Arts. 69-76 give the customs-value rules and Art. 74 the fall-back methods), Art. 71(1)(e) (costs added up to the place of introduction) and Art. 72(a) (transport after entry is not added); VAT Directive 2006/112/EC, Art. 85 (the taxable amount starts from the customs value), Art. 86(1) and 86(2) (duties and other import charges, and incidental costs to the first place of destination, are added), Art. 87 (discounts and price reductions come off) and Art. 201 (the member state designates who is liable). Checked: 5 September 2026.

What this page cannot do. It takes ad valorem rates (percentages) and specific duties as a euro amount per tonne, the form most EU anti-dumping duties actually take; enter the net weight and the per-tonne rate from TARIC and the amount lands in both the duty total and the VAT base. TARIC also carries other specific and compound duties (euro per 100 kg or per hectolitre, agricultural components, the entry price system); convert those to a per-tonne figure first, and check which unit the measure actually uses before you trust the conversion. Reduced VAT rates, excise and preferential origin (tariff quotas, FTAs) also change the outcome; check TARIC and your origin documents. VAT rates: the same list as the VAT page, checked 4 September 2026.

Questions this answers

What do I pay VAT over when importing?

The customs value is only the starting point. On top of it come the duties and other charges due by reason of importation, and the transport on to your first destination in the country of clearance; discounts for early payment and price reductions you already hold at the time of import come off again. Take the calculator's own defaults: €10,000 of goods and €1,500 of freight to the border give a customs value of €11,500; at 4.2% that is €483 of duty, so the VAT base is €11,983 and the VAT at 21% is €2,516.43; not the €2,100 you get by applying 21% to the goods value alone. Add €800 of onward transport from the port to your warehouse and the base becomes €12,783 and the VAT €2,684.43; the duty stays at €483, because inland transport is not part of the customs value. Run your numbers.
Source: VAT Directive 2006/112/EC, Art. 85 (starting point), Art. 86(1) and 86(2) (what is added) and Art. 87 (what comes off); Union Customs Code, Art. 70-72. Checked: 5 September 2026.

Where do I find my duty rate?

In TARIC, the EU’s integrated tariff database, by product code. Rates move with measures; preferential origin under an FTA can zero them out, anti-dumping can multiply them. Never rely on a supplier’s “about 4%”.
Source: TARIC database (ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds2/taric). Checked: 3 September 2026.

Is a parcel under €150 still free of import duty?

No. That relief was deleted on 1 July 2026. In its place, and only until 1 July 2028, a flat customs duty of €3 per item applies to a consignment worth €150 or less, but only where the import is declared under the Import One-Stop Shop or the goods arrive as a postal consignment. Read item the way the regulation defines it: everything in the consignment that shares one tariff code, description and stated origin counts as a single item, so ten identical shirts on one declaration line are €3, not €30. Do not read the second route as “letter post only”: that definition was rewritten with effect from 1 July 2026 and now covers goods sold in a distance sale whatever the carrier, courier and express consignments included. Between the two routes, most distance sales up to €150 fall under the €3 charge rather than the tariff rate, whichever VAT route the seller uses; and where it applies it takes the place of any anti-dumping or countervailing duty that would otherwise fall on the consignment, so do not add those on top of it. Unlike the relief it replaces, it also reaches alcohol, perfumes and eau de toilette, and tobacco, which the old Article 24 expressly left out. Check that the measure is yours before you count on it. This is a distance-selling rule. If you buy commercially and the consignment is not a distance sale, the €3 charge is not yours: since 1 July 2026 your consignment under €150 pays the normal tariff rate, because the relief was deleted outright rather than replaced. Where the €3 does apply, the person who owes it is the declarant, being the IOSS holder, the user of the special arrangements for import VAT, or the indirect representative of the importer; not the consumer at the door. On the VAT, “always due” is too blunt. The €22 import-VAT relief went on 1 July 2021, so VAT is due from the first cent; but where the seller or the platform uses the Import One-Stop Shop, which is open only up to €150, the import itself is exempt and the VAT is charged on the sale and paid through the monthly IOSS return instead. Count it once, not twice. Gift consignments between private individuals up to €45 are a case of their own: they keep both their relief from duty, which this regulation left standing, and their exemption from import VAT. This calculator applies the percentage rate you enter; it does not apply the €3 flat charge for you.
Source: Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 of 11 February 2026, Art. 1 (deletes Chapter V of Title II of Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009) and Art. 2 (the €3 flat duty, 1 July 2026 to 1 July 2028); the terms item and postal consignment are those of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 as amended by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1022 of 30 June 2026. Chapter VI (Arts. 25-27) of Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009 was not deleted and keeps the relief from duty for gifts between private individuals up to €45; their exemption from import VAT is Directive 2006/79/EC. Import VAT: VAT Directive 2006/112/EC, Art. 143(1)(ca) (an import declared under the IOSS is exempt), the €22 relief having been deleted by Directive (EU) 2017/2455 with effect from 1 July 2021. Who owes the €3, its precedence over anti-dumping duty and its application whatever the VAT route: European Commission, Importation and exportation of low value consignments — the EUR 3 temporary customs duty. Guidance for Member States and Trade, 2 June 2026. Checked: 5 September 2026.