Customs Duty Calculator

Business | Productivity

iOS

This app is meant for Customs Brokers, Importers and their agents that are involved in buying and importing goods from other countries to their country and are sometimes baffled by the complexity of calculating import duties, import Value Added Tax(VAT),import Goods and Services Tax(GST), and import Sales Tax(ST). It is meant to simplify as much as possible these calculations.The results of the calculations are however estimates, as the final duties and taxes are determined by the Customs Organization in the importing country.

The app is largely generic to accommodate as many countries as possible, though excellent for countries using the Cost,Insurance and Freight(CIF) basis for Customs Valuation.This applies for countries and regions like the UK, EU and a host of other countries.Importers, Brokers and Agents in other countries such as the USA, which uses the “Price Paid” or “Payable” for the goods,which most time is the Free on Board(FOB) value, as the basis of valuation, and does not collect import VAT,GST or ST, can still use the app by leaving out those fields blank or inputting zero.For example by setting the VATRate,Freight and Insurance to zero. The app for now does not calculate fees like automation fees or host of other fees that are encountered in international trade.

The calculation of the VAT,GST or ST also uses the “cascading effect”(that is the import duty is added to the value to form the basis for the computation of the tax).Therefore importers,agents and brokers in countries that do not have this cascading effect in their calculation should NOT buy the app for now, as the duty would be correct but the tax would be higher than what applies. However most countries of the world like UK, EU members, Canada use the cascading effect.

Finally it also presuppose that the importer, broker or agent has access to the import duty rates, VAT,GST or ST rates(got most times from the importing country External Tariff) and the foreign exchange rate of the country of import to get the calculation in the local currency.They should ensure that the region is set to their home country on their phones or iPads to get the local currency symbol.Of course the main document to get the prices and quantities is the invoice or bill of sale.