Importing from China: duty, VAT and documents

Goods imported from China into Ireland, or into any other EU country, pay the EU customs duty for their tariff code and then import VAT at the rate of the country where they are released: 23 % in Ireland, 21 % in the Netherlands and Belgium, 19 % in Germany [1] [7]. Some products also carry an anti-dumping duty on top, for example 79 % on ceramic tableware and 48.5 % on most bicycles from China [3] [4]. The duty rules are the same in every EU country, because duty comes from one Common Customs Tariff [5]; what differs is the VAT rate and the national customs system the declaration goes into.

What the customs broker asks for

The broker who lodges the declaration needs the documents that support it in hand when it is lodged, and whoever lodges it answers for the accuracy of what it says [5]. For a shipment from China that usually means:

• The commercial invoice: seller, buyer, a description of each item, quantities, prices, currency and the delivery terms (FOB, CIF and so on).
• The packing list: packages, weights and contents per carton.
• The transport document: the bill of lading for sea freight, the air waybill for air freight.
• Your EORI number: businesses established in the EU register with customs, and the declaration carries that number [5].
• The freight and insurance costs if you bought FOB or EXW, because they belong in the customs value.
• Product details the invoice does not give: material, use, and for anti-dumping goods the name of the manufacturer.

How these documents feed the declaration is set out in Invoice, packing list and bill of lading compared.

How duty and import VAT are calculated

Customs duty is charged on the customs value: normally the price paid for the goods plus the freight and insurance to the place where they enter the EU [5]. The guide Customs value basics: CIF and FOB shows what each Incoterm changes. Import VAT is then charged on the customs value plus the duty, any anti-dumping duty, and the transport costs to the first place of destination in the EU [6]. The free import duty calculator does the arithmetic for one tariff code.

Three common goods from China, with their CN 2026 duty rate [1] and what TARIC showed for Chinese origin on 24 October 2026 [2]:

TARIC showed no preferential rate for Chinese origin on any of the three codes [2]. A laptop pays no duty, but import VAT is still due on its full value [6].

A worked example for Ireland

Bicycles under 8712 00 30 from a producer without its own anti-dumping rate, bought FOB Shanghai for EUR 20,000, with EUR 1,500 sea freight and insurance to Dublin. The figures are an illustration, not a real shipment.

The anti-dumping duty counts twice: once as a duty and again in the value import VAT is charged on. A business registered for VAT in Ireland can use postponed accounting and account for the import VAT on its VAT 3 return instead of paying it at import [8].

Where anti-dumping duty applies

Ceramic tableware and kitchenware. A definitive duty of 79.0 % applies to TARIC codes 6911 10 00 90, 6912 00 21 11, 6912 00 21 91, 6912 00 23 10, 6912 00 25 10 and 6912 00 29 10 of Chinese origin, charged on the net, free-at-Union-frontier price before duty [3]. TARIC shows it from 7 February 2026 [2].

Bicycles. The duty on non-motorised bicycles and other cycles under 8712 00 30 and ex 8712 00 70 is 48.5 % for all Chinese producers without their own rate; a few named producers have rates of 19.2 % or 0 % [4]. A producer's own rate applies only with a commercial invoice carrying a declaration, signed by an official of the company that issued it, in the wording the regulation sets; until that invoice is presented, 48.5 % applies [4]. The duty also covers bicycles consigned from Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Cambodia, Pakistan and the Philippines, whether declared as originating there or not, apart from listed producers [4].

Measures change, so check TARIC with the code, the origin and the date of the declaration [2].

Mistakes that lead to corrections

Revenue gives these examples of errors that lead to underpaid duty or VAT on import: a wrong tariff code, a wrong TARIC additional code for anti-dumping duty, a wrong customs value, a relief code the goods do not qualify for, and a wrong VAT rate [8]. From China, three patterns stand out:

1. Origin taken from the port, not the factory. Goods have their origin where they underwent their last substantial processing [5]. Goods made in China and shipped from another country are still of Chinese origin.
2. FOB price declared as the value. Freight and insurance to the EU border belong in the customs value [5].
3. An individual anti-dumping rate claimed without the invoice declaration. The residual rate then applies [4].

Customs can notify unpaid duty up to three years after the debt arose [5], and the declarant can ask to amend a declaration after release within three years of its acceptance [5].

Athren works next to the broker or customs team you already have, from the supplier's invoice, packing list and transport document you already send them, and holds what it would have prepared next to the declaration that was filed, so you see where the code, the origin or the value differs. The same questions for other countries are answered in Importing from Turkey, the UK, the US and Switzerland.