Importing to Australia
Customs duty, VAT, and import regulations, updated 2026
Key facts at a glance
The low value rule
AUD 1,000, relieving customs duty, GST and the Import Processing Charge.
The threshold is tested against the price of the goods alone.
- the goods are not alcohol or tobacco, which are dutiable at any value
GST on low value goods is collected at the point of sale by overseas vendors, platforms and redeliverers with AUD 75,000 or more in annual Australian turnover, since 1 July 2018. The border threshold itself did not change.
Source: Department of Home Affairs / Australian Border Force, Notice No. 2018/13. Compare every market →
What this site prices into Australia
This site holds 114 duty rows for Australia, read from its own tariff schedule, and they run from 0% to 5%. 49 of them carry no duty at all. A further 3 codes are charged per unit rather than on value, so no percentage prices them and this guide does not try.
For comparison, the simple average MFN rate across all products is 2.1% on the 2025 profile. That is the figure the calculator falls back to where this site holds no row for the code you asked about. Source: WTO Tariff and Trade Data, Australia member profile: simple average MFN applied 2025, all products.
A worked shipment into Australia
330590, hair products, other, invoiced at AUD 2,000.00 and shipped to Australia. Duty at 5%.
| Goods | AUD 2,000.00 |
| Freight | AUD 120.00 |
| Insurance | AUD 30.00 |
| Customs duty | AUD 100.00 |
| Import tax at 10% | AUD 225.00 |
| Landed cost | AUD 2,475.00 |
The consignment above is over AUD 1,000, so its duty is charged in full. The same code invoiced at exactly AUD 1,000 with no freight would be charged AUD 0.00 of duty and AUD 0.00 of tax.
Priced with the same function the duty calculator answers with, so this total is reproducible. See the full table for 330590 →
What this site does not price into Australia
22 of the codes this site carries have no Australia figure, and each says so on its own page rather than showing an estimate. The reasons, from the verification registry:
- 11 because the schedule splits the subheading into lines that do not share one rate.
- 3 because neither official reading completed.
- 8 because the two official readings returned different answers.
210690, 220422, 220429, 220840, 220860, 220870, 420232, 610711 and 14 more.
Selling into Australia rather than buying?
The same tariff, the same shipment, and the five questions a seller has instead of a buyer's. The exporter's guide to Australia →
2026 tariff update
No change to the AU$1,000 low value threshold, which is now one of the few large thresholds left after the United States and the European Union abolished theirs. GST on low value imports is still collected by the overseas seller or platform at checkout rather than at the border. AUSFTA gives 0% on most qualifying US goods and CPTPP preferential rates apply for Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and the other members.
Source: Australian Border Force (ABF). Last verified 3 September 2026 (2026-09-03).
Overview
Import process
Practical tips
Restricted and prohibited goods
Strict biosecurity: fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, soil, seeds. Also: certain firearms, asbestos, hate material.
What to re-check first
Each claim on this page was checked against a published source on 3 September 2026. These are the items most likely to have moved since.
AU$1,000 is unchanged, but it is now an outlier. The US, the EU and the UK have all abolished or scheduled the abolition of theirs, so treat an Australian threshold as the thing most likely to be reviewed next.
Point of sale collection depends on the seller or platform being registered. Where it is not, GST falls back to the border, which is the most common source of an unexpected bill.
Import conditions for food, plant and animal material change seasonally and by outbreak. Check the Biosecurity Import Conditions system for the specific commodity rather than relying on a general list.
Australia charges alcohol twice at the border: a percentage of the value, and an excise-equivalent customs duty charged per litre of alcohol rather than on price. The percentage is the small half. This site reads two official publications for Australia, the Border Force working tariff and the Customs Tariff Act 1995 compilation on the Federal Register of Legislation, and on the wine, fermented beverage and whisky subheadings it prices they agree on the percentage and give different per litre amounts for the excise-equivalent charge. Where two official sources disagree this site publishes neither figure, so a percentage shown for one of those codes is the ad valorem half only and is not the bill. Read the rate cell in both publications before you budget, and treat the per litre charge as the number that decides the cost.
Calculate duty for Australia
Get an instant estimate for any product shipped to Australia.
Other countries
Common HS codes
847130 Laptops 851713 Smartphones 610910 T-shirts (cotton) 640319 Leather shoes 420211 Leather handbags 910221 Wristwatches 870380 Electric vehicles 220421 Wine Quick links