About this site

A free tool for working out roughly what a parcel from abroad will cost once it reaches the UK.

Why it exists

Import charges are genuinely confusing. The rules involve a threshold most people have not heard of, a tax calculated on top of another tax, a courier fee that is not a tax at all, and a duty rate that depends on where an item was manufactured rather than where you bought it.

Most people only want to know one thing before they click "buy": roughly what will this end up costing me? This site answers that question in four lines.

Who runs it

This site is built and maintained by Arno Smit. It is an independent project and is not affiliated with HMRC, Border Force, or any government department. It is funded by advertising.

How the estimates work

Everything is calculated in your browser. The figures you enter are never sent to a server or stored anywhere. The calculator applies:

the £135 relief threshold below which no customs duty is charged;
a duty rate based on the goods category and whether the UK has a trade agreement with the country of origin;
shipping and insurance, added to the customs value so duty and VAT are charged on them;
import VAT at 20%, charged on the value including any duty;
gift relief thresholds of £39, £135 and £630 where the parcel qualifies as a gift;
an optional courier handling fee.

Foreign currency amounts are converted using live European Central Bank reference rates, so the conversion reflects the current published rate rather than a figure typed in months ago.

What it deliberately does not do

Being clear about the limits matters more than looking authoritative. This tool is an estimate, and there are three things it does not attempt.

Per-product commodity codes. Duty rates here are taken from the UK Trade Tariff, but for one representative code per category. The tariff sets rates per product code rather than per category, so your exact item can differ — the calculator shows which code each rate came from so you can check it.
Specific duties. A few goods are taxed per item rather than as a percentage — watches, for example, at roughly £0.20 each. Those are treated as zero here, which is close enough to ignore.
Alcohol and tobacco. These carry excise duty, which works differently and is not covered here at all.

For authoritative figures, use the UK Trade Tariff tool on gov.uk or contact HMRC directly.

Corrections

If you spot something wrong — a threshold that has changed, a rate that looks off, or a calculation that does not match what you were actually charged — please get in touch. Real-world corrections are genuinely useful and the site gets updated when they come in.