Exporting / Australia
Exporting to Australia: what your buyer pays on arrival
Duty and GST are worked out on two different values of the same shipment, which is the one thing about Australia a seller pricing DDP has to get right.
Every other page on this site answers the importer. This one answers the seller, from the same rows. The figures below are the ones a buyer in Australia meets on arrival, read from the tariff schedules this site holds, and a shipment priced here prices the same in the duty calculator because both go through one function.
What your buyer pays when it lands
Duty first, on the FOB value, then the consumption tax on the value plus the duty. Estimate uses the Australian customs value, which is FOB and excludes overseas freight and insurance. GST is then charged on that value plus transport, insurance and duty.
The dearest thing a seller can put in front of Australia out of what this site prices is 180620, chocolate preparations in bulk over 2 kg, at 5%. On the duty free ones a seller quoting a landed price is quoting tax and carriage rather than tariff, which is a different conversation to have with a buyer. Averaged across the 11 codes this site prices in it, chapter 61 is the dearest chapter into Australia, at 5%. 3 codes here are charged per unit rather than on value, so a percentage will not price them and this guide does not try.
The valuation rule is Australian Border Force customs duty calculation routines: the customs value is the FOB value, while the value of the taxable importation for GST adds transport and insurance. This site reads the third country rate, which is what applies when no trade agreement is claimed, so a buyer who can claim one may pay less and never more.
Who collects it
the Australian Border Force. The charge falls on the importer of record, which is whoever is named on the customs entry, and that is decided by the delivery term the two of you agreed rather than by the tariff. Which is why the section below matters more to a seller than the percentages above do.
Named here on the evidence of the valuation source cited above, which is a source this site already holds rather than a recollection. This site does not hold a primary source for the collection procedure itself and does not describe one.
The low value regime, and what it does to the rates above
Australia relieves customs duty, GST and the Import Processing Charge on consignments at or under AUD 1,000. A seller shipping under that figure is not selling into a lower duty rate: the rate on the table above has not moved, and only the charge is relieved. That distinction is the one that catches sellers out when a consignment is split or consolidated.
The relief is conditional, and these are the conditions as the source states them:
- 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.
The source, in its own words
Goods with a customs value of AUD 1,000 or less are generally not subject to duty, GST or the Import Processing Charge.
Department of Home Affairs / Australian Border Force, Notice No. 2018/13. https://www.abf.gov.au/help-and-support-subsite/CustomsNotices/2018-13.pdf
One shipment, priced the way your buyer will see it
330491, face powder / beauty powders, invoiced at AUD 2,000.00, priced in AUD because a threshold is set in the destination's currency and nothing here is converted.
| Goods value on your invoice | AUD 2,000.00 |
| International freight | AUD 120.00 |
| Cargo insurance | AUD 30.00 |
| Value the duty is charged on, FOB basis | AUD 2,000.00 |
| Duty at 5% | AUD 100.00 |
| Australia tax at 10%, charged on the value plus the duty | AUD 225.00 |
| What your buyer pays to take delivery, before commercial charges | AUD 2,475.00 |
The same shipment appears from the buyer's side on the 330491 page and in the duty calculator, priced by the same function. An illustration, not a quotation: broker fees, handling and any trade remedy on the origin sit outside it.
And if you shipped it small
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, a total of AUD 1,000.00. Splitting one order into consignments under the figure is a decision with a customs view attached to it, and this site does not advise on it.
DDP or DAP, and why it decides who pays the figures above
Under DAP, delivered at place, you get the goods to the agreed place and your buyer is the importer of record. They clear the goods, they are named on the entry, and the duty and the tax in the table above are theirs to pay. The price you quoted is the price they pay you, and the border charge arrives afterwards as a separate bill, which is where a buyer who was not expecting it refuses the parcel.
Under DDP, delivered duty paid, you are the importer of record. You clear the goods into Australia, you pay ABF what the table above says, and your buyer pays only the price on your invoice. It is the better experience to buy from and it puts the whole of the landed figure on your side of the deal, so the number to quote from is the total in the table rather than the goods value.
The choice is not a customs decision and nobody at the border makes it for you. It is a term of your contract of sale, and the only thing customs takes from it is who is named on the entry. It also interacts with the relief above: a DDP seller shipping at or under AUD 1,000 is the one who benefits from it, and a DAP seller is not, because the charge that was relieved was never theirs.
DDP and DAP are Incoterms, which are rules published by the International Chamber of Commerce and incorporated into a contract by the parties. They are not customs law and this site does not quote the ICC text, which is not published free of charge. What is written above is the consequence for the charges this site does price, and nothing here should be read as the definition of either term.
What has to be on the invoice, and on the goods
What this site has not been able to read, and therefore does not state. An unsourced rule is worse than no rule, because it still looks like one.
- The commercial invoice: The Australian Border Force publishes its import guidance through a portal that answers a direct request for any deep path with 404, and the Federal Register of Legislation renders the Customs Act 1901 through a client side application with no statutory text in the HTML. Neither could be read, so this site states no Australian invoice content rule.
- Marking the goods: Not reached, for the same reason. Australia has no general origin marking requirement that this site has been able to read from a primary source, and it does not assert one either way.
Proving origin, from the seller's side
A preferential rate into Australia has to be proved rather than asked for, and what ABF accepts is set per agreement. This site states none of it, and the paragraph under the documents below says why.
- Australian Customs Notice No. 2026/24, China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, expired origin advance rulings, published by the Australian Border Force, read on 2026-09-08: https://www.abf.gov.au/help-and-support-subsite/CustomsNotices/2026-24.pdf
- Australian Customs Notice No. 2025/28, Waiver of certificate of origin under CEPA and AANZFTA, published by the Australian Border Force, read on 2026-09-08: https://www.abf.gov.au/help-and-support-subsite/CustomsNotices/2025-28.pdf
The Australian Border Force publishes its customs notices as PDFs. They download without trouble and they were read, but a PDF carries its text as glyph indices rather than as text, and reassembling those loses characters: the title of one notice comes back with the dash gone and the body loses an apostrophe. Nothing here can prove a given sentence survived intact, so this site records that it read the notices and links to them, and quotes neither.
Whether goods originate under an Australian agreement is decided by that agreement's own product rules, which this site does not hold. What the rate is worth once you have proved it, and the tax and any low value relief sitting on top of it, are on the Australia guide; the terms are in the glossary and the wider question in the agreements FAQ.
One thing is true of every destination on this site and does not need a national source: the classification is yours to get right. The code you put on the invoice is what the duty above is charged under, and a code that is wrong is wrong in both directions, so a reader deciding one should be on the code page and the chapter note rather than on this page. Start at 330491 or in the full directory.