Are you confused by how customs taxes and duties work? Without getting into all the terminologies and legal complexities, we'll summarize the essentials and explain how Glopal handles it for you.
All imported goods and their values must by law be declared to the importing country's customs office. If an item is wrongly described or an inaccurate value is stated, customs authorities may impose penalties and, in serious cases of intentional misstatements, there might even be criminal proceedings.
Customs authorities in different countries assess duty and tax in different ways. The two main ways to classify these are “Free On Board” (FOB) and “Cost, Insurance and Freight” (CIF). For FOB countries, the duty and tax will be calculated on the basis of the product cost only. For CIF countries, the duty and tax will be calculated on the basis of the product, shipping and insurance, i.e. Total Cost. Most countries use the CIF method.
Glopal simplifies the import process so that you don’t have to learn the customs laws and regulations. We complete the customs forms with the appropriate product classification and value based on the information provided in your order confirmation post-checkout and/or post-picking.
Glopal offers a guaranteed Delivered Duty Paid (“DDP”) service. At time of checkout, we will provide a real-time guaranteed Total Cost quote (including duty and tax) so the customer can make the relevant payment and receive the order at his/her home without having to pay any extra or unexpected fees upon delivery. We will pass the payments for the taxes and duties to the relevant customs authorities.
Additionally, Glopal can also provide a Delivery Duty Unpaid (“DDU”) if preferred or if relevant. For certain countries, such as Russia for example, we can only deliver on a DDU basis.
Don’t forget, some countries have a duty free concession where goods below a certain value can be imported without duty and/or tax. See our dedicated page: What is the duty-free limit for imports?
