Landed Cost Calculator — See the Full Import Bill Before You Ship
A shipment's true cost is not what you wired to the supplier. It's what you pay to get the goods across the border and into your warehouse. FOB + freight + insurance = CIF — but not every market taxes the CIF value. The US, Canada, and Australia assess duty on the goods value alone; the EU, UK, Mexico, and Japan assess on CIF. This calculator picks the right basis for each market automatically. Then (duty base + duty) × VAT rate = tax, and goods + freight + insurance + duty + tax = your landed cost. This page runs those numbers across every major import market in parallel — pick your destinations, tweak the rates if you know your HS code, and compare. No account. No server. The math runs in your browser.
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Estimation notes: exchange rates are a June 2026 mid-market snapshot. Duty and VAT rates are market-average MFN estimates and can be adjusted per HS code. Valuation basis: the US, Canada and Australia assess goods value (FOB); the EU, UK, Mexico, Japan and the GCC states assess CIF. De minimis test: the UK tests the freight-inclusive consignment value against £135, Japan tests freight-inclusive CIF against ¥10,000, and Mexico tests consignment value against USD 50; other markets test goods value. Two 2025–26 changes are reflected above: the US Section 321 exemption has been suspended since 29 August 2025, and the EU replaced its €150 duty exemption with a flat €3 per item on 1 July 2026. Actual charges are determined by the customs authority.
The Same Shipment, Seven Different Import Bills
🇺🇸 United States — Duty from the First Dollar
Duty applies from the first dollar. The $800 Section 321 exemption was suspended with effect from 29 August 2025 for every country of origin, so there is no under-$800 lane left: MFN duty is assessed on the full goods value, plus Merchandise Processing Fee (0.3464% of entered value, $34.58–$670.86). No federal VAT or GST at the border — the only G7 economy without one. State sales tax is between you and your customer. The $800 line no longer exists, so there is nothing to sit just underneath. See our Cliff Detector for the markets that still have a threshold, or the US Import Guide for the full entry process. For product-specific duty rates: China→US Electronics or China→US Apparel.
🇪🇺 European Union — VAT from Euro One
The €150 line works differently than it used to. The EU ended its €150 duty exemption on 1 July 2026: a consignment at or below €150 now pays a flat €3 per item in duty instead of nothing, and above €150 full TARIC duty applies on the CIF, not just the excess. VAT, separately, has no floor — the €22 exemption was scrapped in July 2021. So a €30 shipment from China now pays the €3 flat duty plus 21% VAT and the carrier's €10–20 clearance fee if the seller isn't IOSS-registered. The EU's IOSS system lets non-EU sellers collect VAT at checkout and remit directly — but only if you register. If you don't, your customer pays at delivery, and they won't be happy about it. China→Germany calculator walks through the ATLAS filing step by step.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom — The £135 Obligation Shift
Under £135 consignment value: no customs duty, but the seller must be UK VAT-registered and collect 20% VAT at the point of sale. This isn't a free pass — it's a compliance obligation moved from the border to the merchant. Over £135: full UK Global Tariff duty on CIF plus 20% VAT at the border, collected by the carrier with a handling charge. The £135 threshold includes shipping paid by the buyer — £125 goods + £15 shipping = £140 total, over the line. Customs uses the consignment value, not just the goods value. Many sellers learned this distinction the hard way in 2021. China→UK Apparel and Post-Brexit Trade Guide cover the specifics.
🇨🇦 Canada — The CAD $20 Problem
The lowest de minimis in the G7 — CAD $20 (roughly USD $15). Every commercial shipment triggers full CBSA formalities: B3 entry, broker filing, 5% federal GST on the duty-paid value. There's a separate CAD $150 threshold under the Courier Imports Remission Order that gives some relief for courier shipments specifically — but pallets, containers, and wholesale orders get no such break. The CBSA's CARM digital system has made clearance faster, but it hasn't made the $20 threshold any less punitive. For DTC brands selling into Canada from China: budget the full landed cost on every package. There is no low-value channel worth building a business around. China→Canada Freight has a full breakdown.
🇦🇺 Australia — Generous on Duty, Ruthless on GST
AUD $1,000 FOB goods value for duty exemption — one of the highest thresholds globally, and it tests against FOB (excluding freight), which makes it even more generous. But since July 2018, 10% GST applies to all low-value imported goods, collected by the seller or marketplace at checkout. If you're not registered with the ATO to collect GST, your shipments get held. The formula trap: a $900 FOB shipment is duty-free, but the seller still owes 10% GST. Duty-free does not mean tax-free — not in Australia. China→Australia Duty details the ATO compliance workflow.
🇲🇽 Mexico — No Free Rides
The Mexican threshold is USD 50, not MXN 50 — Mexico denominates it in dollars — and it is narrow: postal items, plus courier items from the US or Canada only. Chinese-origin courier parcels get nothing and face a 33.5% flat rate from the first dollar. For everything else, every commercial shipment undergoes full customs: formal pedimento filed by a licensed agente aduanal, MFN duty averaging 15% of CIF, then 16% IVA on top of the duty-paid amount. Broker fees run MXN $1,500–3,500 per entry, independent of shipment value. The only structural relief is IMMEX: if your goods are processed in Mexico and re-exported, duty and IVA are deferred. For direct sales into the Mexican domestic market, there's no shortcut. Budget the full landed cost on every single shipment. China→Mexico IMMEX explains the deferral program in detail.
🇯🇵 Japan — The ¥10,000 Cliff
Japan bundles duty and the 10% consumption tax (JCT) under a single ¥10,000 threshold. Under ¥10,000 CIF total: both charges are zero. Over: both apply on the full amount — no partial exemption, no sliding scale. The threshold tests against CIF inclusive of freight, so a ¥9,500 item with ¥600 shipping crosses the line. Between ¥10,000 and ¥200,000, a simplified declaration works. Above ¥200,000, you need a formal C-5020 filing. Japan's NACCS electronic system processes everything fast — the math is the hard part, not the paperwork. For a ¥9,900 shipment: total import cost = CIF only. For a ¥10,100 shipment: add ~3.5% duty + 10% JCT on the duty-paid amount. A ¥200 gap in goods value can trigger ¥2,000+ in border charges. China→Japan Cargo covers the NACCS workflow.
The Three Numbers That Actually Matter at the Border
FOB is not your cost. CIF is not your cost. Landed is your cost.
There is no single worldwide rule for what customs taxes. Some authorities assess duty on CIF — Cost, Insurance, and Freight, the value of the goods landed at the port of entry. Others assess on the price you paid for the goods, with international freight and insurance sitting outside the duty base as long as your invoice lists them separately. The United States, Canada, and Australia are in the second group. The EU, UK, Mexico, and Japan are in the first. That split is worth real money: on a $5,000 shipment with $920 in freight and insurance, using the CIF value rather than the goods value inflates the duty base by $920, which adds roughly $20 to $140 to the duty bill at the rates on this page. Either way you still pay the freight and insurance — they just may not be taxed. The sequence is: establish the duty base for your market, multiply by the MFN rate to get duty, apply VAT/GST to the duty-paid amount where a VAT exists, then add freight and insurance back in for the true landed cost. Broker fees, terminal handling, and trucking to your warehouse sit on top of that. This calculator handles the customs portion. Your freight forwarder handles the rest.
Why the same shipment costs 30% more in Mexico than in the US
Take a $5,000 FOB shipment of consumer electronics from Shenzhen. Add $800 ocean freight and $120 insurance = $5,920 CIF. In the US, duty is assessed on the $5,000 goods value, not the CIF — and since the $800 Section 321 exemption was suspended on 29 August 2025, there is no low-value escape any more. US MFN on electronics averages 2.3%: about $115 in duty. No federal VAT. Total import cost: roughly $6,035, which still includes the freight and insurance you owe the carrier. Now run the same shipment into Mexico, where duty is assessed on the full CIF: 8% MFN on $5,920 = $474. Then 16% IVA on the duty-paid $6,394 = $1,023 in VAT. Total import cost: roughly $7,417 plus agente aduanal fees of MXN $2,000–3,500. That's a 23% cost difference between two countries that share a border. The landed cost math, not the supplier's price, determines whether a market is profitable. This calculator exists so you can run that comparison in 30 seconds instead of building a spreadsheet.
De minimis isn't a discount. It's a cliff.
Most markets in this calculator still have a de minimis threshold — a value below which customs charges are waived. The United States no longer does: its $800 line was suspended on 29 August 2025, so duty applies from the first dollar there. Where a threshold does survive, it is a cliff, not a sliding scale — one dollar over and the entire shipment becomes dutiable, not just the excess. The calculus is binary, and it is a tax rule rather than a lever: undervaluing an invoice or splitting a shipment to dodge duty is fraud, and the markets that still have a threshold are watching for it. Our De Minimis Cliff Detector visualizes exactly how close you are to each country's line that remains. Use it to plan a shipment value, not to disguise one.
Questions That Come Up After the First Run
Why do I need to enter insurance? I never insure my cargo.
In markets that tax the CIF value, customs assumes the goods are insured whether you bought a policy or not — most authorities impute insurance at 0.5% of CIF if you can't produce a certificate. Entering your actual premium, or even a token $50, gives you a more accurate CIF base than leaving it blank and having customs round up. In the US, Canada, and Australia the premium never enters the duty base, but it still counts toward your landed cost and still shows in the CIF column here. If you genuinely don't insure, enter zero. Just know that customs might not see it the same way.
The duty rates in the calculator — are those real or placeholder?
They're realistic MFN averages by market, drawn from published tariff schedules as of mid-2026. But they're averages — the actual rate for your product depends on the full 6-digit HS code and can be higher or lower. Each row has an editable rate field. If you've looked up your product's exact MFN rate, type it in. The calculator uses whatever number you put there. If you don't know your rate yet, the default is a reasonable directional estimate until you get a broker to classify the shipment properly.
What about broker fees, terminal charges, and trucking?
Not included here. This calculator covers the customs portion of the landed cost: CIF + duty + VAT/GST. Broker fees, terminal handling charges, customs exam fees (if your container gets flagged), and inland trucking are separate line items that vary by port, volume, and broker relationship. Ask your freight forwarder for an all-in quote that includes these. The customs portion we calculate here is usually 60–80% of the total door-to-door cost — the rest is logistics, not taxes.
Does the calculator handle FTA preferential rates?
No — because that's a documentation question, not a calculation question. If your goods qualify for a free trade agreement (USMCA, RCEP, CPTPP, a bilateral FTA), the preferential rate replaces the MFN rate in the formula. Type the FTA rate into the editable rate field and the math works exactly the same. The calculation doesn't care whether the number is MFN or preferential — it just multiplies. What matters is whether you can produce a valid certificate of origin if customs audits the entry. If your broker has confirmed your goods qualify, use the FTA rate. If you're not sure, use the MFN rate — that's the worst-case number that customs will assess if your origin claim gets challenged.
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