The price a Chinese manufacturer quotes is usually 55–70% of what you finally pay. The rest is freight, duty, VAT, port handling and inland transport. This article breaks the landed cost of an import from China into its parts and shows where each one is created.
The landed cost formula
Landed cost is the sum of the goods price, freight, insurance, duty, VAT, port charges and inland transport — everything you pay before the goods stand in your warehouse. Importing from China into Poland, it is calculated in this order:
- Goods price on EXW or FOB terms
- ocean freight to the EU border
- insurance
- = customs value
- duty (rate depends on the CN code)
- = VAT base — plus transport to the first destination in Poland
- VAT at 23%
- THC, demurrage, customs agency, inland transport
The order is not cosmetic. Duty is charged on the customs value, and VAT on the customs value plus the duty — so every euro of freight raises both amounts, not one.
Customs value: what counts and what does not
Customs value is the price actually paid for the goods plus transport and insurance incurred up to the EU border. Transport from the port of Gdańsk to your warehouse is not part of it.
On FOB Yantian terms the customs value is the goods price plus ocean freight plus insurance. On CIF the seller has already built freight and insurance into the price, so the customs value is simply the invoice value.
The most common mistake here is leaving out costs the seller physically incurred — export packing, selling commissions and brokerage, tooling or mould costs on a made-to-order run. All of those are additions to the customs value (Article 71 of the Union Customs Code); a buying commission — what you pay your own buying agent — is not, and all of them tend to surface during a post-clearance audit.
Duty: find your CN code before you calculate anything
The duty rate depends solely on the goods' CN code, not on the commercial name or the wording on the invoice. Without the correct code no landed cost calculation means anything, because rates inside one product group can range from 0% to well over ten percent.
Two places to check it:
- TARIC — the EU tariff database, showing the rate, anti-dumping measures and required documents.
- ISZTAR — the Polish Ministry of Finance tariff browser, the same tariff with national VAT rates.
For a quick estimate of duty and VAT on your goods, use our China import duty calculator.
For goods from China, check anti-dumping measures separately. They can add tens of percent to the base rate, and they are attached not only to the CN code but often to a named manufacturer — two factories shipping identical goods can carry different rates.
VAT: 23% on the customs value plus duty
The VAT base on import is the customs value increased by the duty due — article 30b(1) of the Polish VAT Act. The base also includes transport costs to the first destination inside Poland, even though those costs are not part of the customs value.
That distinction is what most often gets missed. The same inland transport cost is excluded from one base and included in the other.
The standard rate is 23%. For an importer registered for VAT it is a neutral tax — you deduct it — but neutral does not mean free: clearing under the general procedure ties up cash until the refund. The simplified procedure under article 33a lets you account for import VAT in the return instead of paying it at clearance, which on a container worth EUR 40,000 is a difference of roughly EUR 9,200 in working capital.
The costs nobody remembers on a first import
Beyond duty and VAT, a few more lines appear on the final invoice. None is large alone; together they run to 5–8% of container value:
- THC (Terminal Handling Charge) — container handling at the port, at both ends.
- Demurrage and detention — charges for holding the container past the free days. It is the only line here that can be driven to zero, and the most common source of unplanned cost: it runs from the day of discharge, not from the day you learned there was a document problem.
- Customs agency — preparing and filing the declaration.
- Inland transport — terminal to warehouse.
- Unloading — if the container arrives loose-loaded rather than palletised.
Worked example: a 40HQ container, Yantian to Gdańsk
A full calculation for a container of furniture, for example dining tables, invoiced at EUR 30,000 FOB Yantian. The 0% duty rate applies to wooden furniture under CN subheading 9403 60 and metal furniture under 9403 20 80.
Furniture of other materials, such as stone (9403 89 00), carries 5.6% according to TARIC. A table with a stone top on a metal frame is classified by the material that gives it its essential character, so it can be 0% or 5.6%. Check your own code before carrying these numbers across to your goods.
| Line | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Goods FOB Yantian | EUR 30,000 | from the manufacturer's invoice |
| Ocean freight | EUR 2,400 | varies by season |
| Insurance | EUR 90 | about 0.3% |
| Customs value | EUR 32,490 | the base for duty |
| Duty 0% (CN 9403 60) | EUR 0 | check in TARIC or ISZTAR |
| Transport Gdańsk → warehouse | EUR 700 | outside the customs value |
| VAT base | EUR 33,190 | customs value + duty + inland transport |
| VAT 23% | EUR 7,633 | deductible |
| THC + customs agency | EUR 420 | |
| Landed cost excluding VAT | EUR 33,610 | 112% of the factory price |
The factory price is 89% of the landed cost excluding VAT in this example. On goods carrying 6.5% duty the same container would cost EUR 2,112 more and the factory share would fall to 84%.
Typical sailing time on this lane is 30–38 days from departure at Yantian to discharge in Gdańsk, and it depends on the carrier, the service and the season. Production and inland transport are on top of that.
What changed in 2026
The customs duty exemption for consignments up to EUR 150 was abolished on 1 July 2026, and the new Union Customs Code added a handling fee of EUR 2 per item. Both changes concern distance sales to consumers. The Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2026/382 on 11 February 2026 — this is law in force, not a proposal.
In place of the exemption, goods sold to consumers in distance sales, in consignments up to EUR 150, pay a temporary customs duty of EUR 3 per item. An item is a group of goods sharing the same tariff classification, description and origin. The flat rate runs until 1 July 2028, after which such consignments move to normal tariff rates.
The Union handling fee is established by Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 of 16 September 2026, the new Union Customs Code. It is a charge for customs handling on every item sold in a distance sale, not a duty. The Commission set it at EUR 2 per item, and the European Parliament expects collection to start by 1 November 2026 at the latest.
We cover the details in our article on the EUR 3 parcel duty.
None of these changes bears directly on container importing — they apply to distance sales to consumers. They matter indirectly: the "ship parcels straight from China to the customer" model has lost the cost advantage it rested on, and that shifts the arithmetic toward bulk import and stock held in Poland.
When DDP beats FOB
DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) means the seller bears every cost and risk until the goods are delivered to a named address, including duty and clearance. FOB transfers risk to the buyer at the port of loading.
DDP is cheaper on first shipments and small volumes, because you are not paying for your own learning curve: a wrong CN code, free days overrun at the terminal, or a document missing at clearance each cost more than the margin a DDP supplier adds.
FOB is cheaper once you have repeatable volume, know your codes, and work with a customs agency regularly. Then you control the freight and see every cost line separately instead of receiving one number.
The crossover usually falls at the third or fourth container of the same goods — not at a particular value.
If this is your first import, see how DDP from China works: one price for goods delivered to your door, with duty and clearance included.
Legal position verified: September 2026.