Australia Import Duty & GST Calculator

How import duty and GST work in Australia

When you import goods into Australia, two separate charges can apply at the border: customs duty and goods and services tax (GST). They are calculated on different bases, which is where most importers come unstuck. Duty is worked out on a value that excludes your international freight and insurance, while GST is worked out on a value that adds them back in. Get the base wrong and your numbers will be off every time.

Customs value (the duty base)

Duty is charged on the customs value, which Australian Border Force (ABF) calculates on a basis that sits close to FOB — the price of the goods loaded for export at the origin port. International freight and marine insurance to Australia are stripped out. But foreign inland freight, handling, and packing incurred before export are part of the customs value.

So if you bought goods on CIF terms (freight and insurance included in the supplier's price), the customs value is not the invoice total — you back the sea/air freight and insurance out first. On EXW or FOB terms you are closer to the base already, but you still include any origin-side inland costs the seller charged you.

Import duty rates

The duty rate depends entirely on the tariff classification of your goods. The general (MFN) rate is 5%, but that is far from universal — a large share of goods are free (0%). Always check the tariff classification for your specific goods to confirm the rate.

The other major lever is origin. If your goods qualify under a free trade agreement — ChAFTA (China), the agreements with the USA, Japan, Korea, ASEAN, New Zealand and others — and you hold a valid certificate or declaration of origin, the duty rate drops to 0%. The certificate is what unlocks the preference; without it, the general rate applies even if the goods genuinely originate in an FTA country.

GST on the VoTI

GST is 10%, but it is charged on the Value of the Taxable Importation (VoTI), not on the customs value. The VoTI is:

customs value + duty payable + international transport and insurance (plus wine equalisation tax, for wine).

This is the critical nuance. The international freight and insurance you excluded from the duty base get added back on top for GST. Duty is calculated FOB-style; GST is effectively calculated on a landed value. They pull in opposite directions on the same two cost lines.

GST applies to most imports but not all. GST-free categories include most basic food, certain medical aids and appliances, and precious metals. So "10% on everything" is wrong — check whether your goods fall in a GST-free class.

The AUD 1,000 low-value threshold

There are two distinct mechanisms at AUD 1,000, and they are routinely confused.

1. Border de minimis. Goods with a customs value of AUD 1,000 or less clear free of duty and GST at the border — no import declaration, no IPC, no duty, no GST collected by Customs. (Alcohol and tobacco are the exception; they are always assessed.)

2. Low-value imported goods (LVIG), since 1 July 2018. For consignments of AUD 1,000 or less sold to consumers, GST is instead collected at checkout by the overseas seller or online marketplace — provided that supplier's Australian turnover is AUD 75,000 or more. This is a sales-tax-at-point-of-sale rule, not a border charge.

So a sub-AUD 1,000 parcel pays no GST at the border, but you may well have already paid 10% GST to the retailer when you ordered. The two systems are designed to mesh, not double up.

Other charges (IPC, biosecurity, broker)

These apply only when the customs value is over AUD 1,000 and a full import declaration is lodged:

• Import Processing Charge (IPC) — electronic lodgement: AUD 50 for value above AUD 1,000 up to AUD 10,000, and AUD 152 for value over AUD 10,000.
• Biosecurity charge — AUD 46 by air or AUD 68 by sea, for Department of Agriculture processing.
• Customs broker fees — private third-party charges, not set by the government. They vary by broker and are optional if you self-clear, but most importers use one.

Incoterms: what your supplier price already includes

The Incoterm on your invoice tells you where the seller's costs stop and yours begin. Get it wrong and you'll either double-count freight or under-budget your landed cost by hundreds of dollars. Here's what each common term leaves for you to add before you can work out duty and GST.

EXW (Ex Works). The price is goods only, sitting at the supplier's door. You're on the hook for everything after that: origin handling, export clearance, foreign inland freight to the port, international freight, and insurance. EXW prices look cheap because they are — the cost just hasn't landed yet.

FOB / FCA (Free On Board / Free Carrier). The most common terms for Australian importers. The supplier has cleared the goods for export and loaded them at the origin port or carrier. You add international freight and insurance to Australia. This is the cleanest base for our purposes because it matches how Australia values goods (more on that below).

CFR (Cost and Freight). The supplier has paid the international freight, so the price already includes it. You still add insurance — CFR does not cover it.

CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight). Freight and insurance are both in the price. Nothing further to add on the transport side; the figure on the invoice is close to your VoTI base before duty.

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid). The seller has paid duty and GST and delivered to your door. There's nothing left to calculate — though it's worth checking the seller actually remitted what they charged you, especially the GST.

The Australia-specific catch

Here's where importers trip up. For Australia, duty is charged on the FOB-equivalent customs value — international freight and insurance to Australia are stripped out, even if your supplier quoted CIF. But GST is charged on the VoTI, which adds that international freight and insurance back on top of customs value plus duty.

So the same freight cost is excluded from the duty base and included in the GST base. If you're working from a CIF price, you don't just plug it in — you back out the international freight and insurance to find the customs value for duty, then add them in again for GST. The calculator does this split for you; just enter the price under the matching Incoterm so it knows what's already inside the number.

Worked example: AUD 5,000 shipment

Numbers make the order of operations obvious. Take a real-world consignment: AUD 5,000 of general goods, bought FOB, with AUD 600 of ocean freight and AUD 50 of marine insurance to get it to an Australian port. Assume a 5% duty rate and the standard 10% GST.

The trap most first-time importers fall into is taxing one base for everything. They don't. Duty is charged on the customs value (the FOB-equivalent figure, which strips out the international freight and insurance), but GST is charged on the VoTI, which adds that freight and insurance straight back on. Here's how it flows:

Line item	Basis	Amount (AUD)
Customs value (FOB)	goods only	5,000
Duty @ 5%	5% of customs value	250
International freight (ocean)		600
Insurance		50
VoTI	customs value + duty + freight + insurance	5,900
GST @ 10%	10% of VoTI	590
Import Processing Charge (electronic)	value AUD 1,000–10,000	50
Biosecurity charge (sea)		68

Reading it down: duty of AUD 250 sits only on the 5,000 customs value. The freight and insurance then join the base for GST, giving a VoTI of AUD 5,900 and GST of AUD 590 — so the same 650 of freight-plus-insurance that was duty-free still attracts GST. Because the consignment is over AUD 1,000, the two government fees apply: the IPC at AUD 50 (electronic lodgement, value under 10,000) and the sea biosecurity charge at AUD 68.

Add it all up — goods, freight, insurance, duty, GST and the two fees:

5,000 + 600 + 50 + 250 + 590 + 50 + 68 = AUD 6,608.

The duty, GST and fees together come to about AUD 958 on AUD 5,000 of goods — roughly 19% on top of the goods value. That's the number to build into your pricing, not the headline 5% duty rate. A customs broker's own fee, if you use one, sits on top and is private, not government-set.