INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW
Import Duties and Taxes: What US Importers Pay
Import duties are the taxes U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collects on goods entering the country, and what you owe is the product of three things: your tariff classification, your customs value, and your goods’ country of origin. Get those three inputs right and the duty calculation falls out of them. This guide walks through how the duty is built, the federal fees that ride alongside it, and the special tariffs that can stack on top.
Watch — How Much and When to Pay Import Taxes:
How a Duty Bill Is Built
Every entry starts with the duty rate that your HTSUS classification points to, applied to your declared customs value, adjusted for where the goods originate. Duties come in three forms:
| Duty type | How it’s calculated | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ad valorem | A percentage of the customs value | 4.2% of value |
| Specific | A fixed charge per unit of quantity | $0.05 per kilogram |
| Compound | Both an ad valorem and a specific component | 3% plus $0.10 per item |
Most goods carry an ad valorem rate. Country of origin matters because the same product can face a different “column” of the tariff schedule, qualify for a free-trade-agreement preference, or fall within a special tariff program depending on where it was made.
The Federal User Fees
Beyond the duty itself, CBP collects two user fees that importers routinely overlook when modeling landed cost:
- Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF). For formal entries, the MPF is an ad valorem fee of 0.3464% of the customs value, subject to a minimum and maximum that CBP adjusts each fiscal year for inflation. For fiscal year 2026, the floor is $33.58 and the cap is $651.50 per entry. Informal entries pay a smaller flat fee instead.
- Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF). 0.125% of cargo value, charged on goods arriving by ocean vessel through designated ports. It does not apply to air or mail shipments.
The MPF rate has been stable, but the dollar floor and cap reset annually — confirm the current figures before relying on them in a cost model.
There Is No U.S. VAT
Importers coming from a value-added-tax country often expect a VAT line at the border. The United States does not impose a federal VAT on imports. You may, however, owe federal excise tax on specific categories — alcohol, tobacco, and certain fuels — and you will generally owe state sales or use tax when you sell the goods, handled separately from CBP. Do not pad your federal duty estimate with a phantom VAT.
Special and Trade-Remedy Tariffs Stack on Top
The biggest landed-cost surprises come from duties that sit on top of the ordinary rate:
- Antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) offset unfairly low-priced or subsidized imports of specific products from specific countries. Rates are product- and producer-specific and can be very high.
- Section 301 duties target goods from countries found to engage in unfair trade practices (most prominently China).
- Section 232 duties apply to goods, such as certain steel and aluminum, deemed to affect national security.
- Other statutory tariff actions appear and change with administration policy.
These overlays change frequently — lists are added, suspended, litigated, and revised. Treat any current rate as a snapshot, and verify it at the time of entry rather than relying on a figure you saved months ago. A landed-cost model built on the base HTSUS rate alone will understate what you actually pay.
Reducing Duty — Legitimately
- Preference programs. Trade agreements such as the USMCA can eliminate duty for qualifying goods. Other programs, like the Generalized System of Preferences, have lapsed and been renewed by Congress over the years — confirm a program is in force before you claim it.
- Duty drawback. Under 19 U.S.C. § 1313, you can recover most duties on goods that are later exported or destroyed.
- Correct classification and valuation. The cleanest savings come from paying exactly what you owe — no more — by classifying and valuing accurately in the first place.
What you cannot do is undervalue, misclassify, or mis-mark origin to lower the bill. Those are violations under 19 U.S.C. § 1592, and the importer’s duty of reasonable care makes “my broker did it” no defense.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are U.S. import duties calculated?
Duty equals the rate from your HTSUS classification applied to your customs value, adjusted for country of origin. Rates are usually ad valorem (a percentage of value), sometimes specific (per unit), or compound (both).
Does the U.S. charge VAT on imports?
No. There is no federal value-added tax. Importers may owe federal excise tax on specific goods (alcohol, tobacco, fuel) and state sales or use tax on resale, but these are separate from CBP duties.
What are the MPF and HMF?
The Merchandise Processing Fee is 0.3464% of value (within an annually adjusted floor and cap — $33.58 to $651.50 for FY2026). The Harbor Maintenance Fee is 0.125% of value on ocean cargo. Both are collected by CBP in addition to duty.
Why is my duty higher than the tariff schedule rate?
Because trade-remedy and special tariffs — AD/CVD, Section 301, Section 232 — can stack on top of the ordinary rate. These change often and should be verified at the time of each entry.
Duty exposure is moving faster than most landed-cost models can track. Reidel Law Firm provides import and export compliance counsel — including duty exposure, preference eligibility, and drawback reviews — for a predictable flat fee: get a flat-fee compliance memo before your next entry.
