HS Code Detail
852380 Chapter 85 · Electronics Recorded media, other, including vinyl records
Six-digit subheading in Electronics, chapter 85 of the Harmonized System, priced here for 6 destination markets.
Anatomy of 852380
You will declare against a longer local code that begins 852380: ten digits in the United States and the United Kingdom, eight in the European Union, and the first six the same everywhere. Which trailing digits apply is what a rate can differ on, though on this subheading all 6 destinations below charge the same, 0%.
What this code covers
Import duty by country
MFN duty rate · 6 countries| Country | Duty | VAT |
|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇺Australia | 0% | 10% |
| 🇨🇦Canada | 0% | 5% |
| 🇩🇪Germany | 0% | 19% |
| 🇵🇹Portugal | 0% | 23% |
| 🇬🇧United Kingdom | 0% | 20% |
| 🇺🇸United States | 0% | 0% |
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: 852380 into Portugal
An illustrative consignment of 852380 invoiced at EUR 2,000.00, priced in EUR because a threshold is set in the destination's currency and nothing here is converted.
| Goods value on the invoice | EUR 2,000.00 |
| International freight | EUR 120.00 |
| Cargo insurance | EUR 30.00 |
| Value the duty is charged on, CIF basis | EUR 2,150.00 |
| Duty at 0% | EUR 0.00 |
| Portugal tax at 23%, charged on the value plus the duty | EUR 494.50 |
| Total, before commercial charges | EUR 2,644.50 |
And if the consignment were small
Portugal relieves nothing: the relief was abolished, so the duty above is charged whatever the consignment is worth. A smaller shipment pays less because the value is lower, not because a threshold spared it.
Selling rather than buying? EUR 2,644.50 is what your buyer in Portugal pays to take delivery of this consignment, yours to pay if you quote DDP and theirs if you quote DAP: Exporting to Portugal 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 852380 on your own numbers in the duty calculator.
How these rates were verified
Rates last verified 30 August 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.
- 🇦🇺AU
- Australian Border Force Schedule 3 working tariff, general rate for 8523.80.00, read from abf.gov.au.
- 🇨🇦CA
- CBSA Customs Tariff 2026, MFN rate for 8523.80.00, read from cbsa-asfc.gc.ca.
- 🇩🇪DE
- EU Access2Markets, third country duty for CN 8523809000 and the German VAT rate, read from trade.ec.europa.eu.
- 🇬🇧GB
- UK Trade Tariff, third country duty for commodity 8523809000, read from trade-tariff.service.gov.uk.
- 🇵🇹PT
- EU Access2Markets, third country duty for CN 8523809000 and the Portuguese IVA rate, read from trade.ec.europa.eu.
- 🇺🇸US
- USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule, general rates for HTS 8523.80.10.00, phonograph records, and 8523.80.20.00, both free, read from hts.usitc.gov.
Re-check first: Duty is free everywhere here, so the thing to re-check is classification rather than rate. A CD or DVD is 8523.49 and a memory card is 8523.51. Only the residual 8523.80 covers vinyl.
What falls under 852380
- Recorded media for sound or other phenomena not covered by the earlier subheadings of 8523
- Vinyl records, and other recorded carriers that are neither magnetic, optical nor semiconductor
What's specifically excluded
These look similar but belong under a different code:
- 852351: Solid state non volatile storage devices, recorded or not
- 852329: Magnetic media, including recorded magnetic tape
- 852349: Optical media, including CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs
Commonly confused with
852349: Recorded optical discs
Heading 8523 is organised by the physical recording technology before content. A CD or DVD is optical media of 8523.49 whatever is on it, and only carriers falling outside the magnetic, optical and semiconductor subheadings reach 8523.80. Vinyl is the everyday example.
490199: Printed books
An audiobook is recorded media rather than a book, because 4901 covers the printed page. The literary content does not carry the product into Chapter 49 once the words are on a carrier.
Classification & cost note
Heading 8523 sorts carriers by recording technology first and content second, which is why vinyl, an old technology in a modern heading, ends up in the residual subheading rather than anywhere more descriptive. Two practical consequences follow. The first is that a boxed set combining a record with a booklet and a poster is a set put up for retail sale, classified on essential character, and the record normally supplies it, so the printed matter does not take its own code. The second concerns royalties. Where an importer pays a licence fee for the right to reproduce or distribute recorded content, that payment may have to be added to the customs value even though it is invoiced separately from the goods, and this catches independent labels far more often than large ones. The valuation question is separate from the classification question and neither answers the other.
Typical products: Vinyl LPs and singles · Picture discs and coloured vinyl pressings · Boxed vinyl reissues with printed inserts · Recorded media not falling in the magnetic, optical or semiconductor subheadings
What the notes to section XVI say
Chapter 85 sits in section XVI, machinery and mechanical appliances; electrical equipment; parts thereof, sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, and parts and accessories of such articles, where a section note governs every chapter in the section and applies before the heading notes below; the 6 reaching chapter 85 name no heading this site holds a code under, and they are quoted whole on the chapter 85 page, read from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/sections/16 on 2026-09-08.
What the nomenclature says about heading 8523
852380 is a subheading of 8523, discs, tapes, solid-state non-volatile storage devices, 'smart cards' and other media for the recording of sound or of other phenomena, whether or not recorded, including matrices and masters for the production of discs, but excluding products of chapter 37 , and this site holds one other code under the same heading, which every rule below governs equally.
One numbered note to chapter 85 takes heading 8523 as its own subject, and it is quoted below in full, as published.
Note 6 to chapter 85
For the purposes of heading 8523:
a. 'solid-state non-volatile storage devices' (for example, 'flash memory cards' or 'flash electronic storage cards') are storage devices with a connecting socket, comprising in the same housing one or more flash memories (for example, 'Flash E2PROM') in the form of integrated circuits mounted on a printed circuit board. They may include a controller in the form of an integrated circuit and discrete passive components, such as capacitors and resistors;
b. the term 'smart cards' means cards which have embedded in them one or more electronic integrated circuits (a microprocessor, random access memory (RAM) or read-only memory (ROM)) in the form of chips. These cards may contain contacts, a magnetic stripe or an embedded antenna but do not contain any other active or passive circuit elements.
One further note to chapter 85 names heading 8523 from elsewhere in its own text, usually to send goods into it or away from it, and the sentence that names it is quoted below.
Note 12 to chapter 85, which is about something else
For the classification of the articles defined in this note, heading 8541 and 8542 shall take precedence over any other heading in the nomenclature, except in the case of heading 8523, which might cover them by reference to, in particular, their function.
Read from the notes to chapter 85 published in the UK Trade Tariff by HM Revenue and Customs, at https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/chapters/85, with the heading title from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/headings/8523, on 2026-09-07, with the whole layer and the reason a heading note is a chapter note set out on the chapter 85 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 852380
Why are vinyl records not classified with CDs?
Heading 8523 divides by recording technology. CDs and DVDs are optical media and have their own subheading. Vinyl is neither magnetic, optical nor semiconductor, so it falls to the residual subheading 8523.80.
How is a boxed set with a record and a booklet classified?
As a set put up for retail sale, taking the code of the component that gives it its essential character. That is normally the recording, so the booklet and any poster follow the record rather than taking codes of their own.
Related codes in Chapter 85
Calculate duty for HS 852380
Pre-fills the calculator with this code. Add your destination and shipment value for an instant landed-cost estimate.
Country guides