Importing has two separate charges, and they stack. Customs duty comes first, calculated on the value of the goods plus the cost of getting them here. Import VAT then applies to that total — including the duty you have just paid.
You pay VAT on the tax
That compounding is the part that catches people budgeting from a supplier invoice. On £10,000 of goods with £800 freight and 4% duty, the VAT is charged on £11,232, not £10,000.
If you are VAT registered you can normally reclaim the import VAT on your return, so the genuine cost is the duty. Postponed VAT accounting lets you declare and reclaim it on the same return instead of paying it out and waiting.
The duty rate is the bit you have to look up
There is no general rate. It depends on the commodity code for the specific goods and the country they come from, and a trade agreement can take it to zero if the goods meet the rules of origin. Two similar products can carry very different codes, and getting the code wrong is the most common and most expensive import mistake.
The UK Integrated Online Tariff is where to check, and it is worth doing before you order rather than when the goods are sitting at the border.
What else lands on the bill
Customs clearance fees from your freight forwarder, port charges, and for some goods excise duty on top of everything else. None of that is in this calculator, and all of it is real.
Common questions
What is a commodity code and how do I find mine?
It is a numeric code that classifies your goods for customs, and it determines both the duty rate and any restrictions or licences. You look it up on the UK Integrated Online Tariff by describing the product, though the wording is technical and similar-sounding goods often sit under different codes. If a shipment is large or repeating, paying a customs agent to confirm the code once is cheap relative to getting it wrong every time.
Can I avoid duty with a trade agreement?
Sometimes, and it is worth checking. Where the UK has a trade agreement with the country of origin, goods that meet the rules of origin can attract a preferential rate, often zero. The catch is that origin is about where the goods were substantially produced, not where they were shipped from, and you need documentary proof to claim it. Buying Chinese-made goods through an EU distributor does not make them EU origin.
Do I pay VAT if I am not VAT registered?
Yes, and you cannot reclaim it, which makes importing meaningfully more expensive below the registration threshold. It is one of the situations where voluntary VAT registration can be worth modelling even though your turnover does not require it — particularly for a business importing stock regularly and selling to VAT-registered customers.