Do I pay VAT on imported goods?
Yes, almost everywhere. Where a country runs a consumption tax, customs collects it as the goods enter, and it sits on top of the duty rather than replacing it. The names differ by country and the mechanism does not.
It is charged on the customs value plus the duty, so a dutiable product carries tax on its own tariff. That compounding is small at low rates and is not small on apparel or footwear.
Import tax is not a separate tax
Import VAT is the same tax a domestic buyer pays on a domestic purchase, collected at the border instead of at the till. Its purpose is to put imported and locally made goods on the same footing, not to discourage importing.
That is why the rate is the destination's ordinary standard rate rather than a special import rate, and why the reduced rates that apply to food, books or children's clothing at home generally apply to the same goods at the border.
Recovering it, and who cannot
It is recoverable if the importer holds a VAT registration. The amount goes back through the next return as input tax, so a registered business ends up carrying none of it. A private buyer has no such route, and the charge stays with them.
The cash flow is still real. The tax is paid at the border and recovered on a later return, so a business importing steadily is permanently financing one period of it. Deferment and postponed accounting schemes exist in several markets precisely to close that gap.
Who actually pays it at the border
Whoever is named as importer of record. On a direct-to-consumer parcel that is often the buyer, which is how somebody who ordered a gift ends up with a bill from a courier before it will be delivered.
Selling on delivered-duty-paid terms moves that to you. It is the difference between a customer who receives a parcel and a customer who receives a demand, and on consumer goods it is worth more than it costs.
The rate that applies is the destination's
Not the origin's, and not the seller's. The table on this page lists the standard rate held for every destination this site prices, and the country guides carry the reduced rates and the registration thresholds alongside them.
For the European destinations without their own duty row, the standard rate is taken from the Commission's own tax database and carries the date it was read. A rate this project cannot trace to a publication does not appear on the site at all.
Registration, marketplaces and who becomes liable
Distance selling has moved a lot of the collection away from the border. Several jurisdictions now require an overseas seller above a turnover threshold to register locally and charge the tax at checkout, and several make the online marketplace the deemed supplier so the liability sits with the platform rather than the merchant on it.
Which of those applies changes who files, who remits and whose registration number appears on the paperwork. A seller shipping the same product through a marketplace and through their own storefront can be in two different positions on the same day, and only one of them involves the buyer meeting a courier with an invoice.
A worked example
Footwear into Portugal, where both a duty and a consumption tax apply and the tax is charged on the duty.
| Goods value on the invoice | 2,000.00 |
| International freight | 180.00 |
| Cargo insurance | 20.00 |
| Value the duty is charged on (CIF basis) | 2,200.00 |
| Duty at 8% | 176.00 |
| Portugal tax at 23%, charged on the value plus the duty | 546.48 |
| Total, before commercial charges | 2,922.48 |
| Estimate uses the CIF customs valuation method, so international freight and insurance are part of the dutiable value. Union Customs Code (Reg. 952/2013) Art. 70 and Art. 71(1)(e): transport and insurance to the place of introduction are added to the price paid. Rate last verified 2026-08-31. | |
The tax line is larger than the duty line here, which is normal, and it is the line a registered business gets back.
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