Payment and costing
What duty is calculated on.
Customs duty is charged on a customs value, which starts from the price you paid and then has additions and deductions applied. Importers who assume it equals the invoice total are usually wrong in one direction or the other, and both directions cause problems.
The starting point.
In most systems the primary method is transaction value: the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the country of import. That phrase is doing a lot of work.
It is the price for the goods, which is why the Incoterm matters. On an FOB purchase the freight and insurance are not in the invoice, and whether they get added to the customs value depends on the destination's rules.
It has to be a sale for export to that country. Goods bought and then resold before importation raise questions that are worth asking your broker about in advance.
Things that get added and are commonly missed.
These are the items importers genuinely forget, and they are the ones an audit finds.
- Assists
- Materials, tooling, moulds or designs you supplied to the producer free or below cost. If you paid for a mould, its value may belong in the customs value of the goods it made.
- Royalties and licence fees
- Payments related to the goods that you make as a condition of sale can be dutiable, which surprises brand owners.
- Commissions
- Selling commissions generally form part of the value. Buying commissions are treated differently, and the distinction depends on who the agent works for and how it is documented.
- Packing
- The cost of packing and containers for the goods is normally included.
- Freight and insurance
- Included or excluded depending on the destination's basis of valuation, which is why the same shipment can be valued differently in two countries.
- Proceeds of resale
- Where the seller receives part of what you make on resale, that can be dutiable too.
Why understating it is a bad idea.
Suppliers sometimes offer to invoice low. It reduces duty and it is a customs offence in most jurisdictions, committed by the importer rather than by the exporter.
It also destroys your own position. An understated invoice is what your insurance pays out against, what your accounts show, and what a dispute is measured by.
And it is visible. Customs authorities hold reference values for commodities, and a declaration well below the range invites an examination and a valuation ruling.
Getting it right without a specialist.
Give your broker the whole commercial picture: the invoice, the Incoterm, any tooling you paid for, any royalty arrangement and any agent relationship. They cannot value correctly on an invoice alone.
Keep the paperwork consistent. The invoice, the packing list, the transport document and the declaration should describe the same transaction with the same numbers.
For anything unusual, a binding ruling from your own customs authority converts an argument into a decision before the goods arrive.
Questions buyers ask.
Is the customs value the same as the invoice?
Often close and rarely identical. Additions like assists, royalties and commissions can apply, and whether freight and insurance are included depends on the destination. Treat them as separate figures that happen to be related.
My supplier offered to invoice a lower amount. Should I?
No. The offence and the liability sit with the importer, the exposure includes penalties and back duty, and it undermines your insurance and your accounts. It is one of the few genuinely bright lines in this business.
I paid for a mould. Does that affect duty?
It can. Tooling supplied to a producer is a classic assist, and its value may have to be apportioned across the goods it produces. Raise it with your broker rather than assuming it is invisible.
Read next.
Finding your duty rate
Five steps to your own number, the two dated changes coming to Indonesian preferences, and why this page prints no percentages.
Working out a landed cost
Everything between the factory price and the shelf. The twelve lines it contains, and the four that buyers forget.
Incoterms for Indonesian shipments
Almost every quotation out of Indonesia says FOB. For a container that is the wrong rule, and the body that writes the rules says so.
Rules of origin, explained
A preference is worth nothing unless the goods qualify and you can prove it. What the rules ask and where goods fail.
Private label and OEM
Your brand on their product, or a product developed for you. Two different deals with two different risks.
Buying before the harvest
Committing to a crop that does not exist yet. What it protects and what it exposes.
Commercial invoice and packing list
The plainest documents in the set and the ones that stop the most shipments, because customs and the bank read them against everything else.
Certificate of origin forms
Form D, Form E and the rest exist because each agreement has its own. The wrong one loses the preference, and nobody tells you until it is refused.
What it takes to start
Not a figure, a structure. Which costs come before revenue and how long money is tied up.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.