Import VAT EU: taxable base, deferral, deduction and VAT ceiling

TUESDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2026

It is paid at customs on value, duty and transport, but for a business it is an advance: how it is calculated, how it can be deferred up to 90 days, how it is deducted with the accounting summary and when a regular exporter does not pay it.

Import VAT EU rules are simple in principle: in Italy the tax is paid at customs, together with the duty, on a base that adds up the customs value of the goods, the duties and the transport to the destination shown on the transport document. For a business it is not a final cost: it is an advance that is recovered through the VAT deduction, provided the right document is in hand and recorded on time.

Precisely because it is recovered, VAT at customs is often treated as a detail. In fact it weighs on cash flow more than the duty: on goods with a 4% duty, VAT at 22% is worth more than five times as much and must be paid before a single item can be sold. This guide explains, using the Italian rules, how it is calculated, who pays it, how payment can be deferred, how it is deducted and when a regular exporter may not pay it at all.

Import VAT EU: what it is and who pays it

When goods arrive from a country outside the Union, for example China, Vietnam or Turkey, and are released for free circulation in Italy, the import is a transaction subject to VAT just like a domestic sale. The tax is not charged by the supplier, who invoices without Italian VAT: it is collected by the Italian Customs Agency at clearance, together with the other border charges.

The debtor is the declarant, that is whoever lodges the customs declaration in their own name, or the person in whose name the declaration is lodged. In practice almost every business relies on a forwarder or customs broker: if it acts as a direct representative, the importer remains the business; if it acts as an indirect representative, the position changes, and the EU Court of Justice (case C-187/14, DSV Road) made clear that the deduction belongs to whoever uses the goods in their own taxable transactions, which is not normally the case for the representative.

The forwarder that advances duty and VAT on the client's behalf recharges them on its invoice as amounts excluded from the taxable base. Its invoice is therefore not the document that allows import VAT to be deducted: that document comes from customs, as explained below.

The taxable base: customs value, duties and transport

The rule is in Article 69 of Italian Presidential Decree 633/1972. VAT is calculated on the value of the goods determined under customs rules, increased by the customs duties due (excluding VAT itself) and by the forwarding costs to the place of destination within the Union shown on the transport document.

The items that enter the calculation are therefore:

• Customs value: as a rule the price paid or payable to the supplier, plus freight, insurance and other costs up to entry into the customs territory of the Union.
• Duty: the amount calculated with the rate of the goods' TARIC code, plus any anti-dumping or countervailing duties.
• Inland transport: the forwarding costs from the port or airport of arrival to the destination shown on the transport document.
• Other ancillary charges: commissions, packing and insurance up to the first place of destination, if not already included in the customs value.
• Excluded: VAT itself, which never enters its own calculation base.

The point that causes most errors is inland transport. If the goods are declared delivered to destination, transport to the warehouse is already included in the base on which VAT is paid at customs, and the carrier's invoice for that leg is not taxable. If they are instead declared delivered to the border, the Italian leg stays outside the customs base and the VAT on that service is accounted for by the importer under the reverse charge. In both cases the tax is paid only once: what changes is where.

Rates and when VAT becomes due

At customs the same rate applies as for a sale of the same goods in Italy, set out in Table A of Presidential Decree 633/1972: 22% standard, 10%, 5% and 4% for goods that fall within the reduced cases. Most consumer goods, components and promotional items imported by a business bear 22%, but some products, for example various foodstuffs, have reduced rates: it is worth checking the specific heading before preparing a quote.

The tax becomes chargeable when the customs declaration is accepted by the authority. That date fixes the applicable rate and gives rise to the right to deduct.

How it is paid: at customs or with deferred payment

The ordinary method is payment at release: the forwarder pays duty and VAT, the goods leave, the cost is recharged to the importer. For frequent importers there is an alternative: deferred payment, provided for by Article 110 of the Union Customs Code and, for national charges such as VAT, by Article 45 of Legislative Decree 141/2024, the Italian customs reform in force since 4 October 2024.

Deferral requires an authorisation and adequate security, usually a bank or insurance guarantee. The first thirty days bear no interest; for VAT and excise duties the deferral can reach ninety days, including the first thirty, with interest at the rate set by Article 46 of the same decree.

For a regular importer deferral is often worth more than any discount on freight: it aligns the VAT payment at customs with the periodic VAT settlement in which the same tax is deducted. In Germany, for example, the Conference of Finance Ministers of the Länder has decided on an offsetting model that will avoid the outlay altogether, but only from 2030.

The deduction: accounting summary and purchase ledger

The document that allows the deduction is no longer the old paper customs bill. With the re-engineering of import declarations introduced in 2022 (Italian Customs Agency circular 22/D/2022), customs makes available, after release, the accounting summary statement, which shows the VAT assessed grouped by rate. It is downloaded from the Single Customs and Monopolies Portal, in the service for managing customs declaration documents, and is accessible to the importer, the declarant and the representative.

The statement must be entered in the purchase ledger, showing the customs office and the declaration details in place of the supplier. The foreign supplier's invoice does not go in the VAT ledger: it is recorded only in the general accounts, because its tax is the one paid at customs.

The deadlines changed recently. With Legislative Decree 148/2026, the corrective decree published in August 2026, the deduction can be exercised at the latest in the VAT return for the second year after the one in which the right arose, and recording follows the same deadline; previously the limit was the return for the same year. The longer deadline is there to recover a forgotten document, not to postpone: VAT paid at customs is cash tied up until it is deducted.

Regular exporters: declaration of intent and VAT ceiling

There is one case in which VAT is not paid at customs. A business whose exports and other non-taxable transactions exceeded 10% of its turnover in the previous year is a regular exporter and can import without VAT, within a limit called the plafond, equal to the amount of those transactions. The plafond is calculated with the fixed method, on the previous calendar year, or the rolling method, on the previous twelve months.

To use it at customs a declaration of intent must be sent electronically to the Italian Revenue Agency before the transaction. Since 2020 it no longer has to be handed to customs: the database is shared and the importer enters the receipt protocol number in the customs declaration. A single declaration can cover several imports up to a total amount.

Exceeding the plafond is expensive: the unpaid tax must be regularised with interest and penalties. That is why businesses that use the plafond at customs keep an up-to-date record of how much they have already used, transaction by transaction.

A practical example with numbers

A hypothetical example, with rounded figures. A business buys promotional items in China for 10,000 euros. Sea freight and insurance to the port of Genoa cost 1,250 euros: the customs value is 11,250 euros. With a hypothetical 4% duty, the duty is 450 euros. Transport from Genoa to the warehouse in Milan, shown on the transport document, costs 300 euros.

The VAT base is 11,250 + 450 + 300 = 12,000 euros. VAT at 22% is 2,640 euros. At customs the business therefore pays 450 euros of duty and 2,640 of VAT, 3,090 euros in all, more than 30% of the price of the goods. The duty is a cost; the 2,640 euros come back through the deduction, once the accounting summary is recorded. With deferral, the same payment can move up to thirty days later without interest. If the business is a regular exporter and has filed the declaration of intent, at customs it pays only the 450 euros of duty and its plafond falls by 12,000 euros.

Small consignments and e-commerce

For online sales to consumers the rules are different. On consignments worth up to 150 euros, VAT is collected through the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), if the non-EU seller is registered, or through the special arrangement in which the courier collects it from the recipient. Since 1 July 2026 these consignments no longer benefit from the duty exemption: a flat 3 euro duty applies, a transitional measure until July 2028. For a business importing goods for resale, however, the route remains the ordinary import described in this guide.

What to check before every import

Import VAT is rarely wrong on the rate and often wrong on the steps. Before every shipment it is worth checking five points:

• Incoterm and transport document: clarify whether the goods travel delivered to the border or to destination, because it decides where VAT on inland transport is paid.
• Full customs value: freight and insurance up to entry into the Union must be added to the price, even if the supplier invoiced them separately.
• Representation: know whether the forwarder acts in the business's name or in its own, because it changes who can deduct.
• Document for the deduction: download the accounting summary from the customs portal and record it within the deadline.
• Cash flow: consider deferral or, for regular exporters, the declaration of intent, before the goods reach the port.

With La Merce, import VAT on goods from outside the EU is calculated before the order: taxable base, duty and inland transport go into the quote, and the accounting summary reaches the business ready to be recorded.

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