Import Duty, VAT and Excise: Three Taxes, One Customs Entry

This page is the landed-tax operating file: import duty, import VAT and excise as three separate charges that can stack on one customs entry. It is not a frozen EAC CET reprint, not a TISEZA incentive brochure, and not a PVoC manual.

• The entry: TANCIS
• Conformity: PVoC
• Capital-goods relief: sibling slug still pruned unless upgraded; confirm TRA, do not invent a holiday
• Tax-rate map: 2026 rates (reconfirm)

As at 10 September 2026. Confirm tra.go.tz, the live EAC CET, and the Finance Act of the year. This page publishes no duty rate, no VAT rate, no excise rate, and no exemption percentage.

Three charges, one entry

Import duty is a tariff-schedule tax under the EAC Common External Tariff as applied by Tanzania. VAT on imports is a domestic consumption tax collected at the border. Excise sits on scheduled goods: fuels, some drinks, some vehicles, others the live schedule names. They have different bases. A ‘duty-free’ slogan can still leave VAT and excise standing.

Preference (EAC, SADC, others) can cut duty when the origin paper is real. It does not automatically cut VAT. Confirm each charge. Do not model one holiday as three.

Valuation is the argument

Related-party invoices meet customs valuation and transfer-pricing together. See the TP page. A low invoice that ‘helps duty’ can hurt a later income-tax audit, or the reverse. Pick one true value.

Exemptions are applications

TISEZA-linked relief, capital-goods schemes, diplomatic relief, and donor projects are named processes. A certificate of incentive is not a customs entry. The relief must appear the way TRA Customs currently wants it: code, exemption number, whatever the live screen says. A slide in an investor deck is not that code.

This page will not list qualifying HS chapters. They move. Confirm the live instrument the week of shipment. Shipping first and ‘regularising’ later is how you pay duty and then argue a refund.

Zanzibar entries

Customs is a Union tax in the usual orientation. The VAT story on the same goods can still split if the importer is a Zanzibar person using the goods in Zanzibar. See the Union-versus-non-union page. Confirm the live entry desk. Do not assume a Dar exemption letter covers an Unguja consignee.

Sequence

1. Classify HS and read the live CET row, plus VAT and excise overlays.
2. Check PVoC and sector permits so the entry is not perfect and the gate is closed.
3. Confirm any relief as a live TRA instrument, not a brochure.
4. Declare through a licensed agent: GN 487A screen if you wanted to self-clear.
5. Pay, release, keep the assessment with the accounts.

Where this file stalls

• Landed-cost models with 2019 rates
• Duty-free slogans that omit VAT
• Exemption letters that name a different importer
• Excise goods entered as general cargo
• Mixing Zatra’s fee into duty: pricing only

Worked path: production line vs supermarket drinks

A production line may have a capital-goods conversation. That conversation is a named relief file plus PVoC plus an EIA if the factory is new. Do not skip EIA because the CET row looked friendly. See the EIA pages.

Drinks on a supermarket shelf can stack duty, VAT and excise, then meet a reserved retail class if the owner is foreign-controlled. The tax stack does not open the till. Screen GN 487A.

Currency of this file

Finance Acts and EAC Gazette notices rewrite rows in-year. This page is orientation as at 10 September 2026. The live assessment wins.

Documents behind a landed-cost number you can defend

HS classification memo; live CET row printout dated the week of shipment; VAT and excise overlays confirmed the same week; PVoC status; and any relief instrument with the importer’s name. A 2019 spreadsheet is not a defence.

Related-party invoices need the valuation file. Preference needs the origin paper. Missing either is how the assessment exceeds the model.

What this page will never publish

A duty rate. A VAT rate. An excise rate. An exemption percentage. Those belong on TRA and the Finance Act of the year.

Failure modes

Duty-free slogans that omit VAT. Exemption letters for a different importer. Drinks entered as general cargo. Shipping first, relief later. Mixing Zatra’s fee into duty.

As-at 10 September 2026: diary discipline

Re-print the CET row the week the vessel is booked, not the week the financial model was approved. If they disagree, the CET wins.

Mandate-holders this file does not replace

TRA Customs computes the stack on the entry. The EAC Gazette writes the CET. The Finance Act writes overlays. TBS still wants PVoC. TISEZA, where relief exists, still does not lodge the entry. ZRA may still own a VAT story for a Zanzibar importer. This page is only the three-charge orientation.

Excise licences for manufacturers are a different TRA file from excise on an import of scheduled goods. Do not collapse them. A factory that imports concentrate and bottles locally can meet both. Confirm the live excise statute.

Preference origin papers are issued by named bodies. A commercial invoice that says ‘EAC goods’ is not a certificate. Confirm the live issuing body on the Trade Portal.

What to put in the board minutes

Write that landed-cost models will be reprinted against the live CET the week of shipment, that VAT will be modelled even when duty is zero, and that no relief will be assumed from a brochure. If the CFO’s model is older than the last Finance Act, minute that it will be rebuilt.

When an exemption is granted, minute the instrument and the importer name. If they do not match the TANCIS person, the exemption is decoration.

What a declined landed-cost pack usually looked like

A 2019 CET row, a duty-free slogan that omitted VAT, and an exemption letter that named a different importer. Rebuild the model the week of shipment. Print the live CET, the live VAT overlay, and the live excise schedule. If duty is zero, still model VAT. If drinks are scheduled, do not enter them as general cargo. Preference without an origin certificate is not preference. Confirm tra.go.tz. This page still prints no rate.

Related-party invoices that are low for duty and high for the management accounts are two values. Pick one true value and put it on both files. Transfer-pricing and customs valuation are cousins. See the TP page.

Operator calendar for landed tax

At financial-close: model duty, VAT and excise as three lines. Week of shipment: reprint the live CET and Finance Act overlays. Same week: confirm any relief as a named instrument with the importer’s name. After release: file the assessment with the accounts. A 2019 model is not a calendar. Confirm tra.go.tz. This page still prints no rate. If VAT was omitted because duty was zero, rebuild the model before the next vessel.

Cross-links without contradicting keepers

TANCIS is the entry. PVoC is the conformity gate. The 2026 tax-rate map is the rate file and must be reconfirmed. This page only stacks three charges. It prints no rate. Confirm tra.go.tz. Relief is an application, not a TISEZA slogan. Zanzibar VAT may still split. GN 487A hedging is unchanged if the importer also wanted to be the agent or the retailer.

What this desk will not freeze on 10 September 2026

CET rows, VAT overlays, excise schedules, exemption percentages. Reprint the week of shipment. Model three charges even when a brochure says duty-free. Related-party values must be one true value across customs and income tax. Confirm tra.go.tz. Zatra’s fee stays on /pricing/.

Excise on a factory’s local production is a different TRA licence file from excise collected on an import of scheduled goods. A bottler who imports concentrate can meet both. Confirm the live excise statute before the first batch, not after the first assessment.

Preference under EAC or SADC is a certificate story. A commercial invoice that merely says ‘East African goods’ is not that certificate. Confirm the live issuing body on the Trade Portal before you model a zero duty row.

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Exporting from Tanzania

The permit, the proceeds and the port decide the rest.

• The ten exports that carry a tax or levy, each against its instrument
• The permit each product needs: crop boards, COPRA, TPHPA, minerals, fish and forest produce
• Customs in TANCIS, proceeds within 90 days, zero rating and the refund

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