— and change again in 2028
Know what your parcel actually owes before it ships.
You sell into the EU from outside it. The duty, the VAT, who files the declaration — it all moved this year. DutyVault works out the real number, and tells you plainly when it isn't sure.
The tools
Duty Calculator
€3 per item — goods sharing the same tariff classification, description and, where the declaration carries it, origin count as one item.
Open →Landed Cost
Duty and import VAT for a whole order. The Union handling fee is not included.
Open →Checkout Setup
What to charge in your store, and where to put it. Shopify, WooCommerce, or anything else.
Open →Catalog Audit
Drop a product CSV: today a run stops before any product is classified, so no codes, description checks or readiness score are shown.
Open →Description Linter
Weak product descriptions are why the code comes out wrong. Find them, fix them.
Open →HS Code Browser
Browse a curated list of common e-commerce codes (HS 2022, 6 digits). An illustrative list: it does not classify your product.
Open →Decision Trees
Answer a few questions, get the code. Tops and shirts, footwear and watches.
Open →Disambiguation Wizard
Not sure of the code? Answer 2–3 questions from your product and land on a defensible code — or an honest "not this tool".
Open →BTI Search
Binding rulings (BTI) the EU has already issued. Search the official database.
Open →Product Identifiers (PID)
Voluntary now, mandatory 1 November 2026. Two identifiers required per line item, a third where a barcode exists.
Open →EORI / VAT / IOSS
Check your EORI, VAT and IOSS numbers before customs checks them.
Open →Am I the Importer?
Are you the importer now? Three questions.
Open →Who Files For You?
Who lodges your EU declaration — and whether you can. Find out who files, and what to ask them.
Open →Do I Need IOSS?
One monthly VAT return, or a bill at your customer's door. Which applies to you?
Open →CBAM Check
Is your product in the EU carbon border scheme, are you under the 50-tonne line, and what must you do? Cited to the Regulation.
Open →ICS2 / ENS Check
Who files the pre-arrival security declaration for your shipment, and what must you hand them? Cited to the Customs Code.
Open →Preferential Origin Check
Can you claim a reduced duty rate, under which arrangement, and what proof of origin do you need from the exporter? Cited to the Customs Code.
Open →Anti-dumping Check
Could your product and country of origin face an anti-dumping or countervailing duty? How to check TARIC, and what to get from your supplier. It lists no rates.
Open →Customs Valuation Check
The price you paid is the starting point, not the customs value. What the Code makes you add, what it leaves out, and what applies when the price cannot be used. It computes no figure.
Open →Returned Goods Relief Check
Did your goods leave the EU as Union goods and come back? Whether the import duty can be relieved, and what you must show. It is not the route for a customer returning a parcel to a seller outside the EU.
Open →Duty Repayment Check
Paid import duty you think should come back? The Code lists four grounds for repayment, each with its own conditions and deadline, and every one needs an application to customs. It decides nothing and computes no figure.
Open →Import VAT Recovery Check
Paid import VAT at the border? Whether you can get it back depends on who you are and what the goods are for: deduct it on your VAT return, claim a refund, or neither. The mechanics vary by Member State. It decides nothing.
Open →Special Procedure Selector
Not keeping the goods in the EU for good? Find the special customs procedure that fits what you intend to do with them: store, process, repair, show or move them. Several need an authorisation from customs. It points you to the procedure; it does not set it up.
Open →Customs Exchange Rate Check
Your customs value is in USD, CNY or GBP? Customs does not use your bank rate or your invoice-day rate: it uses a published rate fixed for the month. Which rate, when it is fixed and where to find it. It states no rate and converts nothing.
Open →EU Product Contact
Which EU contact does your product need? One or two questions.
Open →Product Rules Lookup
CE, REACH, CPNP — what your product type needs on top of duty.
Open →EU Roles Check
What the EU texts require a seller outside the EU to have in place — and where they leave it to each country.
Open →TARIC Check
What else applies to your code. Straight into the official TARIC database.
Open →Stuck Shipment Helper
Your parcel is stuck. Here is why, and how to fix it.
Open →Declaration Prep
Declaration data built from your Vault — H7 for consumer parcels, H1 route for business imports. Your customs agent files it.
Open →Commercial Invoice
The invoice customs wants. From your Vault, or type it in. Print or PDF.
Open →CN22 / CN23
Postal customs forms CN22 and CN23, filled in and ready to print.
Open →Returns: Duty Loss Check
Customer sent it back? The €3 is not refunded automatically — recovery needs a claim and evidence. Find out where you stand.
Open →Vault Export
Export your Vault records as a JSON file. Not the EU Data Hub format.
Open →SKU Vault
One customs record per product. Check it, approve it, lock it.
Open →Compliance Dashboard
Your score, your deadlines, and what is still missing.
Open →Store Sync
Import from Shopify or WooCommerce. Shopify variants (same Handle) become one record.
Open →IOSS Reconciliation
Compare the VAT you filed with the parcels you actually sent.
Open →Vault Data Check
Checks your Vault records on the data DutyVault knows about today.
Open →Measures Watchlist
Keep a list of the codes you ship. Alerts are not live yet — check measures in TARIC.
Open →Handling Fee Tracker
Union handling fee: €2 per item. What it is, who owes it, and where it comes from.
Open →CN 2027 Watchlist
List your codes for the 1 January 2027 CN update. Comparison is not live yet.
Open →HS 2028 Watchlist
List your codes for HS 2028 (from 1 January 2028). Remapping is not live yet — use the WCO tables.
Open →Pricing
Questions
What is the €3 flat duty?
From 1 July 2026 the EU removed the €150 duty-free threshold. In its place, a flat €3 customs duty applies to consignments valued at €150 or less (Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382). It is an interim measure and runs until 1 July 2028. More on the €3 duty →
Is the €3 per item or per parcel?
Neither: it is charged per item — goods sharing the same tariff classification, description and, where the declaration carries it, origin count as one item. For the H7 declaration, Commission guidance on the €3 duty and the handling fee, version of 5 October 2026 says the duty applies per declaration line irrespective of the quantity (§5.2), and its H7 example declares goods with different descriptions under one HS6 code on one line (§5.2); the guidance is not legally binding. Five identical t-shirts are one line: €3. Three different products are three lines: €9. Getting your descriptions right is what stops the same product landing on two codes and being charged twice. What “per item” means →
Does the €3 apply to business (B2B) shipments?
No. The €3 applies to B2C distance sales of €150 or less. A shipment to a VAT-registered business follows standard customs duty at each product’s own tariff rate, and import VAT goes through the company’s VAT return rather than IOSS.
Do I need IOSS?
IOSS is for B2C distance sales of €150 or less. It lets you charge VAT at checkout and file one monthly return, and it is the route on which the €3 flat duty applies. A courier parcel without IOSS can fall to the full tariff instead. IOSS does not apply to business imports. Do I need IOSS? →
Who files the customs declaration?
Until 20 September 2027 (Reg (EU) No 952/2013 Art 170(2)–(3)): the declarant must be established in the EU unless an exception applies. The exceptions: (a) persons who lodge a customs declaration for transit or temporary admission; (b) persons, who occasionally lodge a customs declaration, including for end-use or inward processing, provided that the customs authorities consider this to be justified; (c) persons who are established in a country the territory of which is adjacent to the customs territory of the Union, and who present the goods to which the customs declaration refers at a Union border customs office adjacent to that country, provided that the country in which the persons are established grants reciprocal benefits to persons established in the customs territory of the Union.
From 21 September 2027 (Reg (EU) 2026/2108 Art 85(3)–(4)): the declarant must be established in the EU unless an exception applies. The exceptions: (a) persons that lodge a customs declaration for transit or temporary admission; (b) persons that occasionally lodge a customs declaration, including for end-use or inward processing, provided that the customs authorities consider this to be justified; (c) persons that are established in a country the territory of which is adjacent to the customs territory of the Union and who present the goods to which the customs declaration refers at a Union border customs office adjacent to that country, provided that the country in which the persons are established grants reciprocal benefits to persons established in the customs territory of the Union; (d) importers for distance sales involved in the distance sale of goods which are to be imported in the customs territory of the Union under the IOSS scheme, provided that they appoint an indirect representative.
How these provisions fit together in practice is for the implementing rules; ask your customs adviser.
Until 30 June 2028, the declaration for goods sold in distance sales is lodged by one of the following (Reg (EU) 2026/2108 Art 85(2), applicable since 20 September 2026): (a) the person permitted to make use of the IOSS scheme or its indirect representative; (b) the person permitted to make use of the special arrangement laid down in Title XII, Chapter 7, of Directive 2006/112/EC or its indirect representative; (c) in cases other than those referred to in points (a) and (b), the indirect representative of the importer; (d) in cases other than those referred to in points (a), (b) and (c), any other person that is able to provide all of the information which is required for the application of the provisions governing the customs procedure for which the goods are declared. An EU business importing for its own use can be the declarant, or can appoint an agent under direct representation, filing in the business’s name. Who files for you →
How accurate are the HS codes?
Automatic classification is not yet live. When it is, DutyVault will suggest a customs tariff code and show how it got there: up to three candidate codes, the deciding fact, the nearest binding tariff rulings it found and a confidence label. You confirm the code or change it, and nothing is applied until you do. It does not promise a correct code: it gives a suggestion almost every time it is asked, so the confidence label and the rulings are how you judge it. In a test of the research engine on 300 public EU binding tariff rulings (6 November 2026), its first suggestion matched the ruling’s six-digit code in 89.9% of the cases it answered (268 of 298; 95% interval 86.0% to 92.9%), and it answered 298 of 300; measured on public EU binding tariff rulings from seven chapters of the tariff, not including chapter 71 (jewellery). This is a test of the engine, not of a live product. You are responsible for the classification you use: verify it in TARIC, or hold a binding tariff information (BTI), before you rely on it.
Do you file anything with customs on my behalf?
No. This prepares data and documents. Your licensed customs agent files them. We are not a customs representative and we lodge nothing with any authority.
What changes on 1 November 2026?
Product identifiers become mandatory in customs data — three identifiers per line, not just a barcode. Union handling fee: €2 per item (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2152 Art 1, under Reg (EU) 2026/2108 Art 20(2) and (10)). That regulation entered into force on 22 October 2026 and applies from 1 November 2026 (its Art 2); Reg (EU) 2026/2108 Art 287(4) applies Art 20(2) from 10 days after its entry into force. The guidance (version of 5 October 2026) says that from then declarants include TARIC document code Y126, that declaring it triggers the fee, that it also applies to distance sales above €150, and that it is not limited in time. Product identifiers →
What changes in 2028?
From 1 July 2028 the €3 flat duty ends, unless extended, and standard tariff rates by product code return, regardless of value. Under the new Union Customs Code (Reg (EU) 2026/2108) the importer for distance sales — the seller, or the platform facilitating the sale (Art 5(13)–(14)) — must provide the customs data before release and ensure payment of the duties (Art 27(2)). The Code names it the person responsible for the customs debt (recital 77), with transitional rules on who is the debtor (Art 183(5)). The definition and these duties apply from the Code’s general application date, 12 months after entry into force (Art 287(2): 21 September 2027). From 1 July 2028 the data goes into the EU Customs Data Hub (Arts 74 and 287(5)), and under Directive (EU) 2025/1539 the supplier or platform is liable for import VAT on distance sales. The importer for distance sales →
If a customer returns an item, do I get the duty back?
Not automatically. Once goods are released into free circulation, the €3 is not given back by default. Recovery is possible only on the grounds the Union Customs Code lists for repayment, for example defective goods, or goods that do not match the contract, that are taken out of the EU (Articles 116 and 118), and it needs evidence and an application within the time limit (Article 121) — and at €3 per line the administrative cost often exceeds the duty. Returned Goods Relief (Article 203) is a different thing: it relieves duty on goods that left the EU as Union goods and come back, so it does not refund duty already paid on a parcel a customer sends back to a seller outside the EU. Worth confirming the process with your customs broker if you handle high return volumes. Duty on returns →
Where does my product data go?
The tools run in your browser. Your product text stays on your device unless you explicitly send it — for example when running a catalogue audit.
Is this legal advice?
No. This is informational. It is sourced to the actual regulations and links to the official databases, but it is not legal or customs advice, and it does not replace a licensed customs representative. The compliance guide →
Why you can trust the number
It won't guess when your money's on the line.
A compliance tool that guesses confidently is worse than none. Every free tool here was audited for one thing: does it tell you the truth when it isn't sure, instead of a comforting wrong answer.
A code is only a suggestion: DutyVault shows its reasoning and the binding tariff rulings it found, and you confirm the code. Nothing is applied until you do.
Stop guessing what your parcels owe.
Start with one product. It's free, it runs in your browser, and it'll tell you plainly if your situation is one it can't answer.
Check a product →