Import duty & VAT calculator.

It is the same tax at the same rate, charged at a different point. Import VAT is levied when the goods enter the UK, on the value of the goods plus freight plus any duty. If you are VAT registered and the goods are for your business, you reclaim it on your VAT return like any other input tax — so the genuine cost of importing is normally the duty, not the VAT. If you are not registered, the import VAT is a real and unrecoverable cost.

It lets you declare and reclaim import VAT on the same VAT return rather than paying it at the border and waiting to recover it. There is no application — you or your freight agent simply indicate it on the customs declaration, then download the monthly statement from your customs declaration service account. For anyone importing regularly it is straightforward and materially better for cash flow. The one thing that goes wrong is nobody downloading the statements, which leaves the return unsupported.

The UK Integrated Online Tariff on gov.uk. It determines the duty rate, the import VAT rate, and any licences or restrictions, and similar-sounding goods routinely sit under different codes with different rates. Getting it wrong is the most common and most expensive import mistake. If a shipment is large or repeating, paying a customs agent to confirm the code once is cheap against years of the wrong rate — in either direction, because underpaying is a liability and overpaying is your own money.

Origin is where the goods were produced or last substantially transformed. Where they shipped from is just logistics. A trade agreement can cut duty to zero, but only if the goods meet its rules of origin and you hold the right proof. Buying Chinese-manufactured goods from a warehouse in Rotterdam does not make them EU origin, and claiming preference you cannot evidence is the sort of error that surfaces years later with interest attached.

You are. The importer of record is legally responsible for the accuracy of the declaration even when an agent files it. Agents work from the information you give them and generally will not second-guess a commodity code or a valuation you supplied. Check what is being declared on your behalf rather than assuming the agent has verified it.

Often not, but only if declared correctly. There are reliefs for commercial samples of negligible value, returned goods, and replacements for faulty items under warranty. They all depend on the right customs procedure code at the time of import. A free-of-charge shipment declared as a normal import is fully dutiable, and "it was free" is not a defence — a value still has to be declared.

Clearance and brokerage fees from your freight agent, port and handling charges, storage if the goods sit while a query is resolved, and excise duty on alcohol, tobacco and certain fuels — which is charged separately and often dwarfs customs duty. This calculator covers duty and import VAT only, so treat its figure as the floor rather than the landed cost.

Yes. Northern Ireland operates under the Windsor Framework, and goods moving there can face different treatment depending on whether they are considered at risk of onward movement into the EU. Schemes exist to avoid EU duty on goods staying in Northern Ireland, but they require registration in advance. If you move goods into or through NI, this is worth establishing before the first shipment rather than during it.