Payment Agent Fees in the Customs Value: What Russian Customs Now Asks of Your Shipment

1. Why your buyer pays you through a third company

Over the past few years cross-border transfers have become far harder to complete. Reports of foreign banks refusing to accept international payments from Russia appear constantly, and traders have had to fall back on payment agents — companies that receive money from the Russian buyer and pass it on to the supplier's account. The agent charges a fee for this service.

That fee is what the whole dispute is about. Formally it is the buyer's cost, paid under a separate contract to which you are not a party. But because the money reaches you through that channel, Russian customs treats the fee as a candidate for inclusion in the customs value of your goods — the base on which import duty and VAT are calculated.

2. What the EAEU rules say about agent fees

Three documents answer the question. They apply across the Eurasian Economic Union, so the same logic works for shipments to Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan:

• the EAEU Customs Code, articles 39 and 40;
• Decision of the EEC Board No. 283 of 20 December 2012 on the transaction value method (Method 1);
• Decision of the EEC Board No. 112 of 15 July 2014 on adding intermediary (agent) and broker remuneration to the price actually paid or payable for the imported goods.

Article 39(1) defines the customs value of imported goods as the transaction value, that is the price actually paid or payable when the goods are sold for export to the customs territory of the EAEU, supplemented in accordance with article 40. Article 39(3) adds that this price is the total of all payments for the goods made or to be made by the buyer directly to the seller or to another person for the benefit of the seller.

Article 40(1)(a) lists intermediary (agent) and broker remuneration among the additions to that price — with one exception: the buying commission a buyer pays to its own agent for services connected with the purchase of the goods, rendered on the buyer's instruction outside the customs territory of the Union.

Decision No. 283 (clause 5.2) states that costs arising from actions taken by the buyer at its own expense, where those costs do not affect the price the seller sets for the goods, are not treated as indirect payments even when the actions also serve the seller's interest, and are not included in the customs value.

Decision No. 112 sets out the test that matters most in practice:

• the answer depends on the substance of the relationship between the parties — in whose interest, the seller's or the buyer's, the agent acts;
• a buying commission paid by the buyer to its purchasing agent is not added to the price, because such a payment is not and cannot be a cost of the seller and therefore cannot have been built into the price by the seller;
• a buying agent acting for the buyer may search for sellers, place the order with the seller, obtain samples, help the buyer negotiate better terms and prices, represent the buyer when the foreign trade contract is concluded, and so on — the list is not exhaustive;
• where remuneration of a selling agent acting in the seller's interest has not been included by the seller in the price and is paid by the buyer either to the seller against a separate invoice or directly to that agent, it must be added to the price actually paid or payable.

Read together, these documents mean that where the payment agent acts in the buyer's interest, the cost of its services is not subject to inclusion in the customs value. That distinction between a seller's agent and a buyer's agent is exactly what the declarant and the customs clearance broker have to prove at the border, using documents that largely come from you.

3. Where customs and the courts stand today

The Russian Ministry of Finance, the executive body coordinating the Federal Customs Service, takes the same position. After numerous approaches from traders it sent letter No. 27-01-21/106988 of 1 November 2024 to the FCS.

The core of the letter: if the imported goods can be purchased regardless of whether the payment agent's services are used, and the seller does not oblige the buyer to conclude additional contracts with payment agents — that is, such contracts are concluded solely on the buyer's own initiative — there are no grounds for including the cost in the customs value.

Note what that adds. Alongside the question of whose interest the agent serves, a second condition now appears, and it is a condition about your conduct as the seller: the goods must be purchasable independently of the payment agent.

The letter looked like the end of the argument. In practice customs authorities in most cases still insist that agent costs be included in the customs value whatever their nature, on the grounds that a fee for merely transferring money to the seller is not the "buying commission" referred to in article 40 of the EAEU Customs Code and in Decision No. 112 — even though the list of a buying agent's actions in that Decision is not exhaustive.

The courts are no more consistent. In case No. А41-69680/2024 the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region ruled on 19 December 2024 in favour of Sheremetyevo customs, obliging OOO NAG to include the agent costs in the customs value; the Tenth Arbitration Appellate Court then overturned that decision in the trader's favour. At the time of writing Sheremetyevo customs had filed a cassation appeal with the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District, with the hearing scheduled for 17 July. Until the customs legislation is amended, this back-and-forth will continue — and every consignment paid for through an agent travels into that uncertainty.

4. What this means for your shipment

The outcome at the border depends less on the payment agent's own paperwork than on what your sales documents say. Customs reconstructs the deal from the contract, the invoice and the correspondence you issued — and from those it decides whether the agent was the buyer's choice or your condition.

The costliest thing you can write is a clause obliging the buyer to pay through a specific payment agent: it turns the agent's fee into part of the customs value, and duty and VAT are charged on top of it. One sentence in the contract decides whether the buyer has a defence at the border or none at all.

The second risk is time. A customs value check is carried out while the goods are already in Russia, and the consignment can sit at the terminal until the declarant produces the documents. Almost all of them originate with you: the contract, the invoice, the price list, the correspondence about terms, and written confirmation that the money has arrived. Sending them a week later means a week of storage charges and a delayed delivery — which is why we advise suppliers who arrange turnkey logistics and customs clearance through us to hand over the full set together with the shipping documents.

5. What the exporter should do

1. Keep the payment route out of the sales contract. Do not name a specific payment agent and do not make payment through one a condition of the deal.
2. Allow payment from a third party as an option available to the buyer, not as an obligation — the wording should show the choice was the buyer's.
3. Invoice the goods only. No transfer commission, no agent fee, no "banking costs" line on the commercial invoice.
4. Keep your price independent of the payment channel. Price lists, offers and email correspondence must not show a surcharge for paying through an agent.
5. Confirm receipt of funds in writing when the money comes from a third party, quoting the contract and invoice numbers and the full amount received.
6. If you work through your own sales agent and expect the buyer to cover its fee, say so openly before shipment — that fee belongs in the customs value and is far cheaper to declare than to explain afterwards.
7. Send the complete document set with the shipping documents, not on request after arrival. In a value check the buyer is given days, not weeks.

6. Frequently asked questions

Our buyer asks us to accept payment from a company we have never heard of. Is that normal?
Yes — that is how payment agents work. Make sure the payment reference points to your contract and invoice, and confirm receipt in writing, so the buyer can prove the full price of the goods was paid.

Should we add the agent's fee to our invoice so that everything is transparent?
No. A fee shown on your invoice becomes part of the price for the goods and is dutiable. Invoice the goods only; the agent bills the buyer separately under its own contract.

The buyer asks for a letter stating that the price does not depend on the method of payment. Why?
Because the Ministry of Finance position turns on exactly that: the goods must be purchasable regardless of whether a payment agent is used. Such a letter, together with the contract, is the evidence used to keep the fee out of the customs value.

Can this dispute actually delay our cargo at the border?
Yes. If customs opens a customs value check, the goods stay under control until the documents are provided, with storage running. The delay is caused by missing paperwork far more often than by the underlying legal question.

7. Мнение эксперта

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

«In my experience the exporters who run into trouble are rarely the ones doing anything wrong — they are the ones being helpful. A supplier wants to make life easier for the buyer, so it writes into the contract the exact company the money should go to, or it puts the transfer fee on the invoice as a separate line "for clarity". Both gestures cost the buyer money at the border, because customs reads them as proof that the payment channel was the seller's condition and the fee was part of the price.»

«The other thing I would plan for is time. A customs value check starts after the goods have arrived, and the clock runs on storage while everyone waits for a document that already exists in the supplier's office. Prepare the contract, the invoice, the price confirmation and the letter about the payment route before the consignment leaves, and hand them over with the shipping documents. It costs an hour before departure and saves a week at the terminal.»

Summary

Payment agents have become a normal part of settlements with Russia, and the question of whether their fee belongs in the customs value is still unsettled: the Ministry of Finance says no when the buyer chooses the agent freely, customs frequently says yes, and the courts have ruled both ways in the same case. What you write in your contract and on your invoice determines which side of that line your shipment falls on. Keep the payment channel out of the sale terms, keep the fee off the invoice, and send the supporting documents with the goods. Send us a request, and we will review your case against a specific consignment.