Customs payments in Russia and the EAEU: what your shipment will cost your buyer

1. The five payments your goods meet at the border

Under the legislation in force, customs payments are:

1. import customs duty;
2. export customs duty;
3. value added tax levied on the import of goods into the customs territory of the Union;
4. excise (excise tax or excise duty) levied on the import of goods into the customs territory of the Union;
5. customs fees.

For a shipment moving from your factory into Russia, four of the five are in play: the import duty, VAT, excise if the goods are excisable, and the customs fee for the release operations. Export duty concerns goods leaving the Union — it matters only if you also buy raw materials in the region. Your buyer settles all of them with customs, but the rate that applies and the risk of the declaration being held up are decided by the data you put in the shipping set.

2. Duties: the HS code, the country of origin and the name of your plant

Depending on the procedure, duties are import, export or transit. Import duties protect the domestic market — they raise the price of imported goods and make local production more competitive — and they fill the budget. They are set by the customs tariff and depend on the HS code (TN VED). Export duties are used to restrain the export of raw materials such as gas, oil, metals and timber. Transit duties are levied rarely and are most often cancelled by international treaties, although they can serve as an instrument of geopolitical pressure.

On top of the tariff, certain goods attract a special, antidumping or countervailing duty. These are trade remedies protecting the domestic market against unfair competition from foreign exporters. They are imposed following an investigation and are collected by the customs authorities irrespective of whether import duty is paid, which is exactly why they concern you as the shipper and not only your buyer. Getting the classification and the remedy check done before production, rather than at the customs clearance stage, is the cheapest point at which to find a surprise.

Special duty

A special duty may be imposed in rare cases, for instance to regulate the import or export of particular types of goods. Importantly, this safeguard applies regardless of the country of origin of the product. It is always preceded by a mandatory investigation, which in Russia is conducted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and is opened when imports in a given sector of the economy increase significantly. Experts analyse the quantitative data and assess the injury caused to the sector by the increased imports. If the injury is found to be serious, special duties are applied.

Antidumping duty

The investigation establishes whether the product is the subject of dumped imports — that is, whether buying it abroad causes financial injury to a sector of the economy or prevents a new sector from being created. A product is the subject of dumped imports if its export price is below the “normal value”. Normal value is determined by analysing, throughout the investigation, sales transactions in like goods on the exporter's home market. After the volume of dumped imports is assessed, the investigation examines the injury to the sector and the effect on the price of the like goods produced domestically. If dumping is established, an antidumping duty is imposed at the end of the investigation, and its level and duration are set on the basis of the injury that has to be compensated to the EAEU member state.

For example: 7606119100 — rectangular plates, sheets, strip or tape of non-alloyed aluminium, other, of a thickness of less than 3 mm. The antidumping duty is 13.14% for Chinese producers and 16.18% for Azerbaijani ones.

Read that example as a shipper: the rate is tied to the producer, not only to the code. The full legal name and address of the plant in your invoice and in the certificate of origin is what decides which rate your buyer's declaration carries.

Countervailing duty

The investigation establishes whether the product is the subject of subsidised imports and whether buying it abroad causes financial injury to a sector of the economy of the Union. If both facts are confirmed, a countervailing duty is imposed. It may also be imposed provisionally, before the investigation is completed, for a period not exceeding four months. Its rate is calculated on the basis of the specific subsidy recalculated per unit of product.

Antidumping, special and countervailing duties are levied irrespective of the import duty, but unlike the import duty they are not subject to VAT.

Duty, VAT, excise and customs fees are all calculated from the exporter's paperwork: HS code, invoice, net weight and certificate of origin.

3. Ad valorem, specific, combined: what your documents must carry

Ad valorem — a percentage of the customs value of the goods, with no fixed amount.

Specific — a fixed amount payable per unit of goods. Example: 6402200000 — footwear with uppers of straps or thongs assembled to the sole by means of plugs, with uppers of rubber or plastics. The import duty is EUR 0.34 per pair.

Combined — a combination of the two. Both the ad valorem and the specific amount are calculated and the higher of them is paid. Example: 9401610000 — other upholstered seats with wooden frames. The import duty is 12.5%, but not less than EUR 0.44 per kg.

This is where exporter paperwork most often falls short. An invoice that is perfectly adequate for your home market may carry only a total value and a gross weight, and that is not enough: a specific rate needs the exact number of chargeable units per line, and a combined rate needs the price and the net weight per line at the same time. Missing either one means the declaration cannot be calculated, customs requests documents, and the container waits. In categories where combined rates are the norm — apparel, footwear and accessories, furniture, textiles — it is worth agreeing the invoice template with your buyer once and reusing it, or handing the whole set to a turnkey logistics and clearance provider on the Russian side to check before departure.

4. When the duty is zero, and what the exporter has to supply

Not all goods are subject to customs duty. No payment is required for the following categories:

1. goods for personal use delivered by a carrier or sent in international postal items, with a value of no more than EUR 200 and a weight of up to 31 kg;
2. commercial consignments where the value of the supply is below EUR 200 — these are exempt, but they must be covered by separate commercial documents;
3. certain goods for which the duty has been set to zero;
4. goods imported under international cooperation of various kinds: to support special activities, under free trade area agreements, as humanitarian aid and so on;
5. goods covered by preference arrangements with certain countries, where the duty may be 0% provided that specific conditions are met — a certificate of origin in the prescribed form and the direct purchase and direct shipment condition.

For an exporter, only the last two lines are really actionable, and both are documentary rather than commercial. A preference is not granted for the goods as such: it is granted for goods whose origin is proven in the prescribed form and whose route and contract chain satisfy direct purchase and direct shipment. Reinvoicing through a trading company in a third country, or a transhipment that turns into a resale, removes the preference even though the goods never changed.

Preferences are lost on paperwork, not on product: no certificate of origin in the prescribed form, or a contract and route that break the direct purchase and direct shipment condition, and your buyer pays the full tariff rate on arrival.

5. Excise, customs fees and VAT: where a shipment gets split

Excise is collected by the customs authority when excisable goods are imported into the EAEU. It fills the budget and is charged on goods that are not essentials: alcohol and tobacco products, passenger cars, motor oils and fuel. Profitability in these categories is high and a price increase has almost no effect on final demand. No excise is charged on export.

The excise rate is governed by national legislation and depends on the EAEU HS code of the imported goods. The rate is firm: it states a specific amount payable per unit of excisable product, regardless of its customs value, and the tax base is the volume of goods in physical terms. Declarations for excisable goods are most often filed with the electronic declaration centre of the Central Excise Customs.

If one consignment contains both excisable and non-excisable goods, then either the load is split into two consignments, each declared separately, or the whole volume is declared at the excise customs — which in practice does not always work and is largely at the discretion of the customs authority. For you this is a loading decision, not an administrative detail: the split has to exist in the invoices and packing lists before the truck or container is sealed.

Before you load excisable goods together with ordinary ones, ask your buyer where the consignment will be declared: it will either be split into two declarations or filed at the excise customs, and that single answer changes the document set, the destination customs office and the transit time.

The excise customs also handles:

1. goods with an excisable HS code that do not require excise payment under the particularities of customs legislation;
2. non-excisable alcohol-containing food and non-food products whose circulation is subject to licensing;
3. goods imported into the Russian Federation and classified under headings 3403 and 2710 of the EAEU HS nomenclature (lubricating preparations and petroleum oils);
4. goods imported in the same consignment as excisable goods or as goods listed in appendices 3 and 4 to Order No. 185 of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.

The choice of places where clearance is possible narrows substantially if the products have to be labelled with excise stamps: only the customs authorities named in appendix No. 2 to Order No. 185n of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation are competent to supply importers with excise stamps. If your goods fall into that group, the destination office is effectively fixed, so agree it with your buyer before you book transport.

Customs fees are a mandatory payment for the customs operations connected with the release of goods — in other words, payment for everything the inspector does when checking the declaration, the documents and the goods. The amount depends on the customs value of the consignment: the minimum fee is RUB 775 and the maximum is RUB 30,000. It is worth knowing that if the customs authority refuses release of the declaration, the fee is retained and is not returned to the unified personal account.

On 16 June 2023, Resolution No. 710 of the Government of the Russian Federation of 6 May 2023 entered into force. It introduced increased customs fees for the customs operations connected with the release of radio-electronic industry goods, the list of which is also approved by that Resolution. If at least one item from the list is declared in a customs declaration, the fees are paid at the rate of RUB 30,000. If the declaration contains more than one such item, the fee does not increase in proportion to their number: it is charged once, in the amount of RUB 30,000.

VAT is a customs payment on goods imported into the territory of Russia. It is established by the Tax Code, but in this case the tax is administered by customs (Article 46 of the EAEU Customs Code). Depending on the nature of the goods it is 10% or 20%. On export from Russia the tax is not paid and is not declared.

6. What the exporter should do before loading

1. Agree the HS code with your buyer before you quote the price: the type of rate, the duty level, the excise and the fee bracket all follow from that code.
2. Have the code checked against trade remedies — special, antidumping and countervailing duties. They are charged on top of the import duty, and antidumping rates differ by producer, so the check has to cover your company, not just your country.
3. Put the chargeable unit on every invoice line: pairs, pieces, litres, and net weight alongside the price where a combined rate may apply.
4. Give the producer's full legal name and address exactly as it appears in the certificate of origin, in every document of the set.
5. If a preference is claimed, issue the certificate of origin in the prescribed form and keep the contract chain and the route inside the direct purchase and direct shipment condition.
6. Separate excisable and non-excisable goods into their own invoices and packing lists, or confirm in advance that the whole load will be declared at the excise customs.
7. Keep low-value consignments under separate commercial documents if the exemption for supplies below EUR 200 is meant to apply.
8. Warn your buyer if any item may be on the radio-electronics list: their declaration will carry the RUB 30,000 fee, and that fee is not refunded if release is refused.
9. Send the complete scanned set to the buyer before departure, not on arrival, so that the calculation is checked while the goods are still in transit.

7. Frequently asked questions

Who actually pays the duty and VAT — the exporter or the buyer?
Payments on import into the EAEU are made to customs by the declarant, in practice your Russian buyer. Your part is the data those payments are calculated from: the code, the value, the units, the weight and the origin.

An antidumping duty applies to our country. Does it apply to our plant?
Not necessarily at the same level. Rates are set following an investigation and differ by producer: for aluminium sheets under 7606119100 the duty is 13.14% for Chinese producers and 16.18% for Azerbaijani ones. The duty is charged on top of the import duty, and no VAT is charged on it.

Are samples and small trial shipments free of payments?
Commercial supplies below EUR 200 are exempt from payments, provided they are covered by separate commercial documents. For personal-use items delivered by a carrier or sent by post the limit is EUR 200 and 31 kg.

If the declaration is refused, does the customs fee come back?
No. If the customs authority refuses release of the declaration, the fee is retained and is not returned to the unified personal account, so a document error costs money as well as time.

8. Expert opinion

Yaroslav Loginov — expert in logistics and customs clearance with 40 years of experience.

«In my experience the most expensive mistakes exporters make are not commercial, they are documentary. An invoice is drawn up the way the seller's own accounting needs it — a total amount, a gross weight, a short goods description — and then the declaration turns out to need a net weight per line, a number of pairs, a producer's address. Nobody is at fault, but the goods stand at the border while the set is being corrected, and the customs fee for the refused declaration is already gone.

The second recurring story is a trade remedy or an excise requirement discovered after the goods have left. Both are knowable in advance: the HS code, the country and the name of the plant are enough to check whether an antidumping or countervailing duty applies, and the same code tells you whether the consignment has to go to the excise customs or be split in two. Budget time for issuing the certificate of origin and for agreeing the destination customs office with the buyer — those two items, not the transport, are what usually set the real delivery date.»

Summary

Five customs payments meet your goods at the EAEU border: import duty, export duty, VAT, excise and customs fees. Your buyer pays them, but the rate, the exemption and the place of clearance are determined by the documents you issue — the HS code, the invoice with units and net weight, the producer's details and the certificate of origin. Trade remedies are set per producer, preferences fall on formalities, excisable goods dictate the customs office, and the fee is not refunded if release is refused. Leave a request for a consultation and we will go through the payments and the document set for your specific shipment.