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. CIF × duty rate = customs duty. (CIF + duty) × VAT rate = tax. CIF + 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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估算说明：汇率为 2026 年 6 月市场中间价快照；关税/增值税率为各市场 MFN 平均估值，可按 HS 编码手动调整。De minimis 判定：英国按含运费货件价值（£135）、日本按含运费 CIF（¥10,000），其余市场按货物价值。实际费用以海关核定为准。
The Same Shipment, Seven Different Import Bills
🇺🇸 United States — Section 321 Sweet Spot
Under $800 FOB goods value: zero duty, zero tax, Type 86 electronic clearance in seconds. Over $800: MFN duty on the full CIF, plus Merchandise Processing Fee (0.3464% of CIF, $31.67–$614.35). 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 is a cliff: $799.99 = $0 duty. $800.01 = full MFN on the whole CIF. See our Cliff Detector if your shipment is near the line, 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 split threshold catches people. Duty exemption at €150 FOB goods value — cross it and full TARIC duty applies on the CIF, not just the excess. But VAT has no floor since the €22 exemption was scrapped in July 2021. A €30 shipment from China pays zero duty but still gets hit with 21% VAT plus 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
MXN $50 de minimis — about USD $2.50. It's symbolic. 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.
Every customs authority in the world calculates duty on CIF — the Cost, Insurance, and Freight value of your goods at the port of entry. Not FOB. Not the supplier's invoice. The CIF value is what customs sees when your container hits the terminal. If you're pricing your product based on FOB alone, you're understating your import cost by 5–25%, sometimes more. The sequence is mechanical and unforgiving: FOB + ocean freight + marine insurance = CIF. CIF × MFN duty rate = customs duty. (CIF + duty) × VAT/GST rate = tax. CIF + duty + tax = what you actually pay to get the goods across the border. Broker fees, terminal handling, and trucking to your warehouse are 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, under Section 321, if the goods value is under $800, the whole thing clears duty-free and tax-free. But this is a $5,000 shipment — well over the line. US MFN on electronics averages 2.3% on CIF: about $136 in duty. No federal VAT. Total import cost: roughly $6,056 plus broker fees. Now run the same shipment into Mexico: 8% MFN duty on electronics = $474. Then 16% IVA on the duty-paid CIF = $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.
Every market in this calculator has a de minimis threshold — a value below which customs charges are waived. But these are not sliding scales. One dollar over and the entire shipment becomes dutiable, not just the excess. A $799.99 shipment to the US pays $0 in duty. An $800.01 shipment pays full MFN duty on the whole $800.01 CIF. The calculus is binary. If your goods value is within 10% of a de minimis line, adjusting the invoice or splitting the shipment is almost always the right play. Our De Minimis Cliff Detector visualizes exactly how close you are to each country's line. Use it before you commit to a shipment value strategy.
Questions That Come Up After the First Run
Why do I need to enter insurance? I never insure my cargo.
Customs assumes it's 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. 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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