Import Duty Calculator EU

How it is calculated

The EU applies the Common Customs Tariff on a CIF basis: duty = (goods + freight + insurance to the EU border) × the TARIC rate for the commodity code and origin. Import VAT is then charged on the CIF value plus duty, at the rate of the member state of import.

Duty is harmonised across the union; VAT is not. Rates range from 17% to 27% depending on the member state, which means the same shipment costs different amounts depending on where it clears.

Numbers on it

Goods €16,600, freight €2,215, insurance €88, CIF €18,903. Duty at 6.5%: €1,228.70.

Import VAT at 21% on €20,131.70: €4,227.66. Total at the border €5,456.36, of which the VAT is recoverable for a registered business.

Clearing into a member state with a 19% rate instead gives €3,825.02 of VAT, €403 less on the same shipment. For a business that reclaims it the difference is cash flow only; for one that cannot, it is real money and worth considering when choosing the point of entry.

What it does not tell you

The €150 threshold relieves duty only. VAT has applied from the first euro since the 2021 reform, collected either through IOSS at the point of sale or at the border with a handling fee from the carrier.

Once goods are in free circulation in one member state they move freely within the union, which means the country of first entry determines the customs treatment for the whole EU market. That is a genuine planning decision rather than an administrative detail.

What follows from it

Register for IOSS if you sell consignments under €150 to EU consumers. Without it, every parcel attracts a carrier handling fee on top of the VAT and the customer experiences a delay, which is the main driver of refusals on low-value EU shipments.

Then decide the point of entry deliberately. Customs procedures, clearance costs, VAT rates and deferment arrangements all vary by member state, and the default of clearing wherever the goods happen to land is rarely the optimal choice.

Customs procedures that defer or remove the charge

Customs warehousing suspends duty and import VAT while goods remain stored, with charges falling due only when they enter free circulation. For an importer holding stock that may partly be re-exported, that is a substantial cash flow and cost benefit.

Inward processing allows import of goods for processing and re-export without duty, and outward processing covers the reverse. Both are authorisation-based and both require record-keeping, but for the right supply chain the saving is the entire duty.

Deferment accounts and postponed VAT accounting exist in most member states and remove the border payment entirely for registered businesses. As with the UK, these are applications rather than schemes, available to anyone who asks, and routinely unused by importers who do not know they exist.

Appointing an indirect customs representative or establishing an EU entity is normally required to act as importer of record, since a non-established business generally cannot. Without one, the customer becomes the importer and receives the duty demand.

That is the structural reason so many non-EU sellers moved to holding stock inside the union after 2021, and it is worth resolving before building a cross-border EU business rather than after the refusal rate becomes apparent.