HS Code Detail
420231 Chapter 42 · Leather Goods Wallets and card holders, leather outer
Six-digit subheading in Leather Goods, chapter 42 of the Harmonized System, priced here for 5 destination markets.
Anatomy of 420231
You will declare against a longer local code that begins 420231: ten digits in the United Kingdom, eight in the European Union, and the first six the same everywhere. Which trailing digits apply is what the 5 rates below differ on.
What this code covers
Import duty by country
MFN duty rate · 5 countries| Country | Duty | VAT |
|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇺Australia | 5% | 10% |
| 🇨🇦Canada | 8.5% | 5% |
| 🇩🇪Germany | 3% | 19% |
| 🇵🇹Portugal | 3% | 23% |
| 🇬🇧United Kingdom | 2% | 20% |
Rates shown are MFN (Most Favoured Nation), the default for WTO members. Preferential FTA rates may be lower with valid proof of origin. Section 301 / anti-dumping surcharges on Chinese-origin goods are not included.
What that costs: 420231 into Australia
An illustrative consignment of 420231 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 the 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 |
| Total, before commercial charges | AUD 2,475.00 |
And if the consignment were small
Australia relieves customs duty, GST and the Import Processing Charge on consignments at or under AUD 1,000. The 420231 shipment above is over that, 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. The rate on the 420231 row has not changed; only the charge is relieved. The tax is not simply absent at that value: Australia collects it on the sale instead of at the border, so an overseas seller or marketplace above the registration threshold charges it at checkout. What the relief removes is the charge on arrival, not the tax.
Selling rather than buying? AUD 2,475.00 is what your buyer in Australia pays to take delivery of this consignment, yours to pay if you quote DDP and theirs if you quote DAP: Exporting to Australia sets out who collects it and what your invoice has to say.
An illustration, not a quotation: broker fees, handling and any trade remedy on the origin sit outside it. Price 420231 on your own numbers in the duty calculator.
How these rates were verified
Rates last verified 7 September 2026Every figure in the table above was read from the official tariff database of the market that charges it, on the date shown. Nothing here is copied from another aggregator.
- 🇬🇧GB
- Third country duty for 420231 GB, read on 2026-09-07 from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/4202310010 and again on 2026-09-07 from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reference-document-for-the-customs-tariff-establishment-eu-exit-regulations-2020. Both returned 2%. The two publications are independent of each other and they agree. Retrieved text: 4202310010 2.00 %; 4202310090 2.00 %
- 🇨🇦CA
- MFN for 420231 CA, read on 2026-09-07 from https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2026/html/00/ch42-eng.html and again on 2026-09-07 from https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2026/menu-eng.html. Both returned 8.5%. The Canada Border Services Agency is the only body that publishes this schedule. The Department of Justice publishes the Act and refers readers to the Agency for the schedule itself, so both readings are the Agency's, taken from two different products. Retrieved text: 4202.31.00 8.5%
- 🇦🇺AU
- MFN for 420231 AU, read on 2026-09-07 from https://www.abf.gov.au/importing-exporting-and-manufacturing/tariff-classification/current-tariff/schedule-3/section-viii/chapter-42 and again on 2026-09-07 from https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A04997/latest/text. Both returned 5%. The two publications are independent of each other and they agree. Retrieved text: 4202.31.10 5%; 4202.31.90 5% DCS:4% DCT:5%
- 🇩🇪DE 🇵🇹PT
- One reading covers DE and PT, which are priced from the same schedule: Third country duty (EU, via NI Online Tariff) for 420231 DE, read on 2026-09-07 from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/xi/commodities/4202310010 and again on 2026-09-07 from https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/results?product=420231&origin=CN&destination=DE. Both returned 3%. The two publications are independent of each other and they agree. Retrieved text: 4202310010 3.00 %; 4202310090 3.00 %
Markets with no figure recorded
United States: United States splits 4202.31 into 2 tariff lines and they do not carry the same rate: the schedule returned 3.7 to 8%. A single percentage cannot represent that honestly, so no United States figure is recorded and the calculator falls back to its disclosed category average.
Re-check first: A leather outer surface is what puts a wallet in this code rather than 420232. The United Kingdom charges its hand-made line and its residual line alike; the two United States lines under the same six digits do not agree, so no United States figure is recorded.
What falls under 420231
- Articles of a kind normally carried in the pocket or in the handbag, with an outer surface of leather or composition leather
- Leather wallets, purses, card holders, key cases and spectacle cases
What's specifically excluded
These look similar but belong under a different code:
Commonly confused with
420232: Wallets of coated fabric
The pocket article subheadings divide on outer surface exactly as the handbag ones do, and small leather goods are frequently made from coated fabric that resembles leather closely. The material statement rather than the appearance has to drive the code.
420221: Small leather handbags
A clutch with a strap can be argued as either a handbag or a pocket article. The test is whether the article is of a kind normally carried inside a handbag or pocket, so a purse that lives inside a bag is a pocket article and a small bag carried in its own right is a handbag.
Classification & cost note
Small leather goods are a high value low weight trade and the classification rests on a phrase that reads oddly until it is used: articles of a kind normally carried in the pocket or in the handbag. That is a category test about the kind of article, not about what an individual owner happens to do, so a wallet is a pocket article even when it never leaves a desk drawer. Composition leather counts as leather here as it does throughout heading 4202, while leather look coated fabrics do not, and the rate difference between the two subheadings makes that determination worth documenting at the point of purchase. These goods are also among the most heavily counterfeited in international trade, so brand authorisation paperwork tends to attract more attention at the border than the tariff classification does.
Typical products: Leather bifold and cardholder wallets · Leather coin purses · Leather key cases and travel document holders · Leather spectacle cases · Leather passport sleeves with stitched gussets · Business card holders cut from bridle hide · Folding cheque wallets in calfskin · Concertina card sleeves with popper fastenings
What the notes to section VIII say
Chapter 42 sits in section VIII, raw hides and skins, leather, furskins and articles thereof; saddlery and harness; travel goods, handbags and similar containers; articles of animal gut (other than silkworm gut), and the nomenclature publishes no note to that section at all, so the note to chapter 42 is the highest rule over this code; that is the published position rather than a gap here, and the chapter 42 page says the same, read from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/sections/8 on 2026-09-08.
What the nomenclature says about heading 4202
420231 is a subheading of 4202, trunks, suitcases, vanity cases, executive-cases, briefcases, school satchels, spectacle cases, binocular cases, camera cases, musical instrument cases, gun cases, holsters and similar containers; travelling-bags, insulated food or beverages bags, toilet bags, rucksacks, handbags, shopping-bags, wallets, purses, map-cases, cigarette-cases, tobacco-pouches, tool bags, sports bags, bottle-cases, jewellery boxes, powder boxes, cutlery cases and similar containers, of leather or of composition leather, of sheeting of plastics, of textile materials, of vulcanised fibre or of paperboard, or wholly or mainly covered with such materials or with paper , and this site holds 8 other codes under the same heading, which every rule below governs equally.
One numbered note to chapter 42 takes heading 4202 as its own subject, and it is quoted below in full, as published.
Note 3 to chapter 42
(A) In addition to the provisions of note 2 above, heading 4202 does not cover:
a. bags made of sheeting of plastics, whether or not printed, with handles, not designed for prolonged use (heading 3923);
b. articles of plaiting materials (heading 4602).
(B) Articles of heading 4202 and 4203 which have parts of precious metal or metal clad with precious metal, of natural or cultured pearls, of precious or semi-precious stones (natural, synthetic or reconstructed) remain classified in those headings, even if such parts constitute more than minor fittings or minor ornamentation, provided that these parts do not give the articles their essential character. If, on the other hand, the parts give the articles their essential character, the articles are to be classified in Chapter 71.
This note sends goods to chapter 71.
Read from the notes to chapter 42 published in the UK Trade Tariff by HM Revenue and Customs, at https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/chapters/42, with the heading title from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/headings/4202, on 2026-09-07, with the whole layer and the reason a heading note is a chapter note set out on the chapter 42 page. These notes are part of the international text of the Harmonized System, so the rule is the same whichever destination a shipment is going to, and it decides classification and never a rate.
Questions about 420231
Is a clutch bag a handbag or a pocket article?
It depends on whether the article is of a kind normally carried inside a handbag or pocket. A purse designed to sit inside a bag is a pocket article; a small bag carried in its own right as a handbag is classified with handbags.
Does composition leather count as leather for wallets?
Yes. Composition leather falls with leather throughout heading 4202. Coated fabrics that imitate leather do not, and they take the plastic sheeting or textile subheading instead.
Does RFID blocking material affect the code?
No. A metallic shielding layer inside a wallet is a construction detail and does not make the article an electronic good. The wallet remains a pocket article classified on its outer surface material, and the shielding neither adds a function nor changes the heading.
Related codes in Chapter 42
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