Look up an HS code by product name or number — the first six digits are the same in every country. Then read Türkiye import duty rates and calculate the duty. A GTİP is the 12-digit code Türkiye uses to classify goods at customs: the first six digits are the World Customs Organization's Harmonized System and are the same almost everywhere, while the remaining digits are the EU's combined nomenclature and national subdivisions. If you know the code as a commodity code, a tariff code, a CN or TARIC number or an HTS number, those are the same classification at a different length and under a different authority — the mapping is the first section below. Almost everything on a customs declaration hangs off that code — the duty rate, the licences and certificates required, the right to a preferential rate, the trade statistics — so a wrong code makes all of them wrong at once. The search on this page matches a product name or a code fragment against the 19,210 declarable 12-digit lines of Türkiye's 2026 customs tariff schedule; the list shows each line's code, its description and its parent heading path. Open a result and you get the unit of measure and the import duty by country group, plus the additional customs duty where the goods appear in that annex. The sections below cover how to read that result, and how to choose the code in the first place.
Source: Turkish Ministry of Trade — Turkish Customs Tariff Schedule (TGTC).
Compiled from the official schedule for information only. Binding tariff information is issued by the customs administration.
The same goods under different names: HS code, CN, TARIC, commodity code, tariff code and GTİP
They are branches of one tree: the first six digits are the HS and are identical in every country that applies it, while everything after digit six is each customs administration's own subdivision — with its own name. "HS code", "commodity code", "tariff code" and "GTİP" usually describe the same goods at different code lengths; the trouble is almost never the code itself but not knowing which length the other side expects. The lines below give the digit count, the authority that publishes it and where it is declared. Every rate and tax figure elsewhere on this page is for imports into Türkiye; this terminology map is jurisdiction-neutral.
HS (Harmonized System) — 6 digits — published by the World Customs Organization and applied by more than 200 countries and economies. It is not a declarable code on its own: no country stops at six digits. It is the common language for invoices, contracts and supplier correspondence.
CN (Combined Nomenclature) — 8 digits — published by the European Commission and reissued each year in the EU Official Journal. This is the length used on EU export declarations and Intrastat returns. Because of the Customs Union, Türkiye carries the same first eight digits as the EU.
TARIC — 10 digits — published by the European Commission. This is the length declared on IMPORTS into the EU; suspensions, tariff quotas, anti-dumping duties and surveillance measures are coded in the last two digits, and some measures require a further four-digit additional TARIC code.
Commodity code (United Kingdom) — 10 digits on import, 8 on export — published by HMRC in the UK Integrated Online Tariff. This is what "commodity code" means in British usage. Since leaving the EU the UK runs its own tariff; goods entering Northern Ireland may still fall under the EU tariff, so ask where the declaration will be made rather than where your buyer's office is.
HTS (United States) — 10 digits — imports are declared under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule published by the USITC and administered by Customs and Border Protection; exports are declared under the ten-digit Schedule B number published by the Census Bureau. The import and export codes are not the same number in the US.
GTİP — 12 digits — published by Türkiye's Ministry of Trade in the Turkish Customs Tariff Schedule. A Turkish declaration carries all twelve: 1-6 HS, 7-8 CN, 9-10 TARIC, 11-12 the national statistical position.
"Tariff code" is not the name of a standard. It is the everyday word for whichever of the above the speaker's country uses — GTİP in Türkiye, TARIC on EU imports, commodity code in the UK, HTS in the US. When you correspond, ask how many digits the other side needs: the classic failure is assuming that digits beyond the shared sixth are the same on both sides.
What the 12 digits actually say
A GTİP is layered rather than owned by a single authority. The first six digits come from the Harmonized System, which is why a supplier in China and a broker in Türkiye can quote the same six digits and mean the same goods. From the seventh digit onwards you are in EU and Turkish territory — but not only Turkish: because of the Customs Union, digits 7 to 10 are shared with EU members and only the last two are specific to Türkiye. The dotted format in the results — 0101.21.00.00.00, for example — exists to make the layers visible.
Digits 1-2: the chapter, the broad family the goods belong to.
Digits 3-4: the heading; digits 5-6: the subheading. Everything to this point is the Harmonized System and is shared by every country applying it.
Digits 7-8: the EU Combined Nomenclature subdivision, which Türkiye also applies because of the Customs Union.
Digits 9-10: the EU's TARIC subdivision — suspensions, tariff quotas, anti-dumping and surveillance measures are coded here. If you need to find out whether such a measure hits your product, this is the layer to ask about.
Digits 11-12: the national statistical position, and the only genuinely Turkish part of the code. A Turkish declaration carries all 12 digits.
Share six digits with counterparties outside the EU: the importing country's own 8- or 10-digit line need not match yours, and the common ground ends at digit six. With EU members, the first eight digits (the Combined Nomenclature) are common.
Choosing the code: essential character, not the marketing name
Goods are classified by their objective characteristics at the moment they are presented to customs — material, degree of processing, function, composition — not by what your catalogue calls them. The General Rules of Interpretation, printed at the front of the tariff schedule, set the framework: six rules, applied in order. In practice, finding the right code is less about describing your product and more about reading heading texts together with the relevant section and chapter notes.
The short sequence, in five steps: (1) write the goods down by their objective characteristics, not their trade name; (2) search by material and function, or work down from the chapter directory; (3) read the candidate heading together with the section and chapter notes and apply the General Rules in order; (4) if you are exporting, cross-check the six digits against the destination country's own tariff; (5) where the amounts are large or the classification is arguable, apply to the customs administration for a binding ruling. The points below open up step three.
Start with the terms of the heading and the applicable section and chapter notes; a note can pull goods into a chapter or exclude them outright (Rule 1).
Incomplete or unfinished goods are classified as the finished article when they already have its essential character; goods presented unassembled or disassembled fall in the finished article's heading without that test at all. Assuming a knocked-down shipment gives you room to argue is a common and expensive mistake (Rule 2(a)).
A reference to a material covers mixtures and combinations of it; where that puts the goods in more than one heading, the decision passes to the next rule (Rule 2(b)).
When more than one heading fits: the most specific description prevails; for mixtures, composite goods and retail sets, the component giving the goods their essential character decides; if two headings still merit equal consideration, the one occurring last in numerical order applies (Rule 3).
Goods that cannot be classified under the preceding rules fall in the heading appropriate to the goods to which they are most akin — the rule that actually does the work for new and hybrid products (Rule 4).
Fitted cases and the packing normally used for the goods are generally classified with the goods themselves (Rule 5). Subheadings are only comparable at the same level — do not argue the ninth digit before the sixth is settled (Rule 6).
Base the decision on the technical file: material percentages, weight per unit or per square metre, power or capacity, processing stage. Without those figures classification becomes guesswork.
An "Other" line is the last resort; before falling into one, confirm that none of the named lines at the same level fits.
Reading a result line correctly
Tariff descriptions are hierarchical: a line reading only "- - Other" means nothing on its own. That is what the parent path shown with each result is for, and ignoring it is the single most common way a tariff schedule gets misread. The unit, the footnotes and the shape of the duty cells are not decoration either — all of them feed into the declaration and the calculation.
Parent path: the heading and intermediate levels the line sits under. It is published in Turkish only, so read it as the context that gives the line its meaning — a line described merely as "Diğerleri" (Other) says nothing until you read the path above it, such as "Canlı atlar, eşekler, katırlar ve bardolar: > Atlar:" (live horses, asses, mules and hinnies > horses).
The English description sits at the six-digit level: the English text shown beside a 12-digit line is the text of its six-digit HS parent, not of the line itself, and is usually broader. The national subdivisions in digits 7-12 are described in Turkish only. So do not copy the English text onto an invoice or a contract as the description of the 12-digit item — quote the six-digit HS and describe the goods separately.
The unit column is the tariff's supplementary unit (number, kg, m², litre, head and so on): it does not replace net mass, it is declared in addition to it. On more than two thirds of the lines the column is empty or shows "-", meaning there is no supplementary unit and quantity is declared by net mass alone.
A footnote marks a conditional rate and appears in two forms: a figure next to the rate, such as "0(1)", or a separate "DİPNOT" row whose value lists the footnote numbers. The footnote texts are not reproduced here — read them in the Import Regime annex the rate comes from before putting a footnoted rate into a costing.
Not every value is a percentage: some lines carry a specific or compound duty, for example "1,7 EUR/1000 kg/net". If the cell shows a unit, you are reading an amount tied to quantity, not an ad valorem rate.
The statutory rate printed in the tariff schedule is not necessarily the rate payable; the applied rate comes from the annexes to the Import Regime Decree, read by country group. The list number shown with the result tells you which annex the rate came from — List I is agricultural goods, List II industrial goods.
The schedule holds 23,581 records, of which 19,210 are the bottom-level 12-digit lines used on declarations — and those are the only ones the search returns. Higher-level positions are not results in themselves; they build the parent path shown under each line.
If nothing useful comes back, search by material and function rather than trade name, or start at the 4- or 6-digit heading and work downwards.
Same product, different rate: country groups and proof of origin
A rate that changes by country is not a discount; it reflects the trade regime Türkiye has with that country — the Customs Union, a free trade agreement, or the Generalised System of Preferences. The columns in the result are the country-group columns of the Import Regime annexes, but the annexes do not all publish them the same way, so the first job is working out which column you are looking at. A preferential rate is never automatic either: without valid proof of origin or status on the declaration, the default third-country rate applies.
Column headers differ from annex to annex. In the industrial goods list and in the additional customs duty table the columns are published as numbers rather than names, so the result shows headers reading "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7". They mean: 1 = EU members and FTA partners, 2 = Qatar, 3 = the UAE, 4-5-6 = the GSP groups (least developed countries, countries under special incentive arrangements, developing countries), 7 = other countries. Named columns (AB, BK, EFTA, G.KORE, DÜ and so on) are used mainly in the agricultural list.
EU: industrial goods move under the free-circulation principle of the Customs Union. The A.TR movement certificate used here proves free circulation, not origin — agricultural products and coal and steel products fall under separate arrangements.
FTA columns such as BK (United Kingdom), EFTA (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein), G.KORE (South Korea), MLZ (Malaysia), SNG (Singapore), B-HER (Bosnia and Herzegovina), KOS (Kosovo), GÜR (Georgia), VNZ (Venezuela) and F. ADA (Faroe Islands) follow each agreement's own concession schedule and require origin evidence — an EUR.1/EUR-MED certificate or an origin declaration on the invoice.
The agricultural list also carries D-8 (Developing Eight) and TPS-OIC (Trade Preferential System among OIC Member States) columns, and some lines have a single-country column such as İRAN (Iran). Columns are not always published one per agreement: countries sharing a rate are merged into a single header such as "AB, BK", so look inside the merged headers before concluding your country is absent.
GSP columns: EAGÜ (least developed countries), ÖTDÜ (countries under special incentive arrangements) and GYÜ (developing countries) — unilateral preferences rather than reciprocal agreements. The origin evidence differs too: an EUR.1 is not accepted here, what is required is a statement on origin from an exporter registered in the REX system, the earlier Form A certificate having been withdrawn. This is where preferential claims on goods from Bangladesh, Pakistan and much of Africa most often fail outright.
DÜ (other countries) is the default column that applies when no preferential regime does — the one you will read for most imports from China or the United States. Where the headers are numbered, it is column 7.
Origin is where goods were produced or last substantially processed, not where they were shipped from, and the seller's address does not change it. But a preferential claim needs two further things: origin acquired under that agreement's own list rules, including any cumulation provisions, and evidence that the goods were transported directly or not manipulated in transit. Fail the second and the preference is lost even though the origin has not changed — a frequent loss on Far East shipments routed through a third-country port.
Customs duty is one line item among several
This tool shows the customs duty rate by country group for imports into Türkiye and, where the goods appear in the additional duty annex of the Import Regime Decree, the additional customs duty (İGV) as well. The landed cost of an import is still more than that: several other charges attach to the same GTİP and are set out in separate legislation. Treat the rates here as the starting point of a cost estimate, not the whole of it.
Additional customs duty rests on its own decree and is charged on top of the customs duty; it appears here as a separate table. On some goods — textiles and clothing in particular — it is several times the customs duty, so the real burden may sit in the second table. Read the two together.
The mass housing fund levy arises on certain goods under a separate arrangement and is not shown on this page.
Trade defence measures — anti-dumping and countervailing duties, safeguard measures — vary by country of origin and sometimes by the individual producer.
VAT is calculated on a base that adds the customs duty, the additional customs duty and the other charges paid at importation on top of the customs value; where excise duty applies, it enters that base too.
Reference-value surveillance, tariff quotas and surveillance or registration documents depend on the declared value and quantity.
Non-fiscal requirements attach to the same code: conformity assessment, import permits, product safety controls. Missing paperwork holds the goods however carefully the duty was calculated.
For exports, duty is read from the destination country's own tariff; this search covers the Turkish import side.
Import duty calculation for imports into Türkiye: how the base is built and in what order the items stack
The tax due on an import is not one multiplication but an ordered calculation: every item has its own base, and one item usually feeds the base of the next. So the answer to "how much is the duty" does not end with finding the rate; you also need to know what amount it is applied to, and in which order. The starting point is not the invoice price but the customs value — what the goods are worth at the Turkish border. The six steps below are the whole formula; the search on this page gives you only the rate part of it, the rest is specific to your shipment.
1. Customs value (CIF basis) = price of the goods + freight to the Turkish border + insurance + any royalties, licence fees and assists supplied free of charge by the buyer. On EXW or FOB terms you add freight and insurance yourself; on CIF/CIP they are already inside the price. Inland transport and clearance fees in Türkiye do not belong to this item.
2. Customs duty = customs value × the rate in the column matching your country of origin. A preferential rate is never automatic: without a valid proof of origin attached to the declaration, the "other countries" column applies.
3. Additional customs duty (İGV) = customs value × the additional duty rate. It is applied to the same base, not on top of the customs duty; the two are simply added. In textiles and apparel the additional duty is often larger than the customs duty itself.
4. Anti-dumping, countervailing or safeguard duty where one is in force: charged on the same base ad valorem, or as a fixed amount per unit. Its level is set by the country of origin — sometimes by the individual producer — not by the HS code alone.
5. For excisable goods (vehicles, fuel, alcohol, tobacco and certain electronics and cosmetics listed in the excise law) the excise base is the sum of everything that makes up the import VAT base, excise excluded: customs value + customs duty + additional duty + other charges paid at customs + costs incurred up to registration of the declaration.
6. VAT base = customs value + every tax paid at customs (customs duty, additional duty, excise, anti-dumping duty …) + other costs incurred up to the registration date of the declaration (storage, delivery order, port charges, broker's fee). VAT = that base × the VAT rate of the goods; the standard rate is 20%, with 10% and 1% applying to specific goods.
The order matters: VAT is calculated last and covers everything before it. A modest-looking customs duty rate therefore still inflates the landed cost through VAT — a cost estimate built on the duty rate alone is systematically short.
If you build the calculation in a foreign currency, customs converts the value into Turkish lira at the customs exchange rate in force on the date the declaration is registered — not the rate on the day you ordered.
Everything in this calculation except the rates is fixed by law; only the rates move. Because they can change mid-year through decrees published in the Official Gazette, verify any high-value calculation against the text in force on the declaration date.
The calculator on this page follows exactly this order: enter the customs value and the rates you picked from the code you looked up, and it shows customs duty, additional duty, the VAT base and VAT as separate lines rather than one lump sum.
Estimating landed cost before you ship: what you can know and what you cannot
Most of a landed cost can be calculated before the goods move, but not all of it — and knowing which item belongs in which group is what turns a guess into a budget. The calculable part is the price of the goods, freight, insurance, the duties that follow from the code and the origin, and the service charges you have quotes for. The part you cannot know in advance is whether customs will accept your classification, your proof of origin and your declared value, the exchange rate on the date the declaration is registered, and the storage and demurrage that delay creates. The method that works is to add up the knowable items line by line and carry the unknowable ones as scenarios (expected / adverse) rather than burying them in a single contingency percentage. The list below is written for imports into Türkiye; which party carries which item is decided by the incoterm.
Knowable items: price of the goods; freight to the Turkish border; insurance premium; customs duty (from the code and the origin column); additional customs duty; anti-dumping or safeguard duty where one is in force; excise duty on excisable goods; import VAT; the customs broker's fee; port, terminal, delivery-order and storage tariffs; inland transport. The first three build the customs value; everything after them stacks on that value in order.
Keep VAT on its own line, because for most companies it is not a final cost: a VAT-registered importer normally recovers import VAT, so it affects cash flow rather than the cost of the goods. It is a real cost only where there is no right of deduction — a consumer, or an activity that cannot deduct. Adding recoverable VAT into a landed-cost table overstates the cost of every unit you price from it.
Unknown 1 — acceptance of the classification: customs can dispute the code you chose, and the dispute usually surfaces in a post-clearance audit rather than at the border. The only instrument that secures it is Binding Tariff Information (BTB in Türkiye, BTI in the EU), and even that binds the tariff heading, not the rate attached to it.
Unknown 2 — acceptance of the preferential claim: if the proof of origin is invalid, the agreement's list rule is not met, or direct transport cannot be evidenced, the preferential column falls away and the gap is the full third-country rate. Build the estimate with both columns — the preferential one and the "other countries" one.
Unknown 3 — acceptance of the declared value: where reference-value surveillance applies, a declared value can be found too low. When the base grows, the whole chain grows with it, because VAT is calculated last and on top of everything else.
Unknown 4 — time: a physical inspection, a documentary check, a pending licence or port congestion all generate storage and demurrage. That item follows the calendar, not the tariff, and it is where most bad surprises come from — check it against the validity window of your freight quote as well.
Unknown 5 — the exchange rate: a value in foreign currency is converted at the customs rate in force on the date the declaration is registered, not the rate on the day you ordered. Over a long production and transit cycle that alone can move the total by several points.
The incoterm is the hinge (Incoterms 2020): on EXW the buyer carries freight, insurance and both customs procedures. On FCA and FOB the seller handles export clearance, while main carriage, insurance and import charges sit with the buyer. On CIF/CIP the seller pays freight and insurance but import duties still sit with the buyer — and risk has already passed at the port of loading or on handover to the first carrier. On DAP and DPU the seller delivers to the named place while import declaration and duties remain with the buyer. On DDP the seller carries the import duties, which is why it is the most frequently misused term: the seller must be able to act as declarant in the destination country, and in most countries to register there for tax.
Exporting reverses the same logic: the duty is read from the buyer's national tariff, where both the length and the name of the code differ from yours. Before quoting DDP, check the destination rate, any trade defence measure on that code, and whether you can be the declarant there at all — otherwise the deal you priced meets a tax you did not.
The calculator on this page produces only the tax part of this table: enter the customs value and the rates you read off the code, and it returns customs duty, additional duty, the VAT base and VAT as separate lines. Freight, insurance, brokerage and port items come from your own quotations — they live in your contract, not in the tariff. Whether an anti-dumping or safeguard measure touches your code is worth checking separately through the "Anti-dumping and safeguard measures" link on this page.
Personal online orders shipped into Türkiye are taxed differently
Consignments bought by individuals from foreign e-commerce sites follow a different route. Goods arriving by post or express courier that are not commercial in quantity or nature are cleared with a simplified customs declaration: instead of calculating customs duty, additional duty and VAT separately from the HS code, a single flat tax is charged. Both that rate and the value ceiling for the regime are set by presidential decree, not by statute, and they are revised from time to time — in recent years the ceiling came down and the rates went up. The mechanics below are stable; verify the number against the decree in force before you order.
The base is not the sticker price but the value of the consignment: goods + shipping charge. A "free shipping" promotion does not zero that component; the declared value governs.
The rate depends on where the parcel is dispatched from: a lower rate for consignments coming from EU countries, a higher one for everywhere else, China included. What matters is the physical dispatch country, not which website sold the item.
In the August 2024 revision the value ceiling for the simplified declaration was cut from EUR 150 to EUR 30, and the flat rate was raised to 30% for consignments from the EU and 60% for other countries. These figures can be changed by decree, so confirm the current ceiling and rate before ordering.
Above the ceiling the consignment leaves the simplified regime: it counts as a commercial import, is declared under its HS code, and customs duty + additional duty + VAT (plus excise and anti-dumping duty where they apply) are calculated separately — in practice through a customs broker. From that point the formula in the previous section is the one that applies.
For goods listed in the annexes to the excise law — mobile phones and some cosmetics, for example — a further rate is charged on top of the flat tax, which is why phones end up far more expensive than the headline rate suggests.
The courier's clearance/handling fee is not part of the tax; it appears as a separate line on the invoice, and part of what people call "the customs charge" is usually this.
Some goods cannot come through this route at any value: licensed products, medicines and supplements, radio and telecom equipment, and goods infringing intellectual property rights are governed separately.
If you are importing wholesale quantities from Alibaba, 1688 or similar platforms, the simplified regime does not apply at all: the shipment is a commercial import from the outset and is declared under its HS code. The search on this page gives you exactly the rate part of that calculation.
What a wrong code actually costs
A wrong GTİP rarely stays a single mistake: it breaks the duty calculation, the licensing obligation and the preferential claim at the same time. It also tends to surface late — in a post-clearance audit or an origin verification, long after the goods have been sold. That makes classification the cheapest step to get right and the most expensive one to leave to chance.
Underpaid duty is assessed retroactively and carries interest. Where a discrepancy in the tariff elements produces a duty difference above the threshold set in the legislation, article 234 of the Customs Law imposes an administrative fine of three times that difference — so the exposure is not the "duty difference plus a little interest" most importers assume.
Where the declarant reports the discrepancy before the customs administration finds it, that fine is applied at a reduced rate; if you spot the error yourself, work through this route with your broker.
Overpaid duty does not come back on its own; a refund needs its own application within its own deadline.
Goods that belong in a licensed heading but are declared without the licence stop at the border, while storage and demurrage keep running.
A preferential rate claimed under the wrong code is recovered later, and origin verification can reach an exporter years after the shipment.
Inconsistency between documents — one code on the invoice, another on the declaration — causes trouble both at customs and at letter-of-credit presentation.
On the export side, a wrong code means an unexpected duty bill and a delay in the buyer's country, and the incoterm usually decides which party absorbs it.
The tariff changes every year — and this page is not the binding source
Türkiye's customs tariff schedule is reissued annually: codes open, merge and close. Above it sits the Harmonized System, revised every five to six years — HS 2022 is the edition in force, and HS 2028 is the next one, taking effect on 1 January 2028. Below it sit the Import Regime annexes, which can change mid-year through the Official Gazette. The tariff that applies is the one in force on the date the declaration is registered, so never judge a past declaration by today's schedule.
The data here reflects the 2026 tariff schedule and the 2026 Import Regime annexes, and is provided for information only.
What binds is the legislation published in the Official Gazette and the way the Ministry of Trade and the customs administration apply it; verify anything material there.
For recurring trade or a genuinely arguable classification, apply for Binding Tariff Information (BTB), which binds the customs administration for the holder and for the goods it describes. It has two limits: it lapses at the end of the validity period set in the legislation, and it ceases to be valid before that if a nomenclature amendment or a later classification or court decision changes the classification.
The same instrument is known as BTI in the EU, and English-language texts sometimes use that abbreviation for the Turkish BTB as well; before relying on a code abroad, check whether your export market operates its own binding ruling mechanism.
At each year end, follow the correlation tables for codes that close, and review both the GTİPs stored on your product records and the scope of any binding rulings you hold. The move to HS 2028 will bring the same exercise back on a much larger scale.
When you write a code into an ERP, an invoice template or a product card, record where it came from and when — if the classification is ever challenged, the reasoning is what you defend.
What data this tool reads
The figures below are read from the live database, not estimated. Code resolution and duty rows come from the Turkish Customs Tariff Schedule and the annexes to the Import Regime Decree; the measures come from the Turkish Ministry of Trade's list of measures in force.
SCOPE: this data describes the regime Türkiye applies on IMPORT. "Does the destination country apply an anti-dumping duty to Turkish goods?" is a different question, and this data does not answer it.
Tariff schedule — 23581 codes, of which 19210 are the twelve-digit lines used on a declaration · 96 chapters · 2026 schedule
Customs duty rows — 16406 codes · annexes to the 2026 Import Regime Decree · last fetched 2026-09-14
Additional customs duty rows — 4592 codes · Annex 1 to the additional duty decree. It applies only to the codes the decree enumerates; absence from the list means no additional duty.
Trade defence measures in force — 1312 rows · 80 products · 49 origins · 492 tariff codes · list last seen 2026-09-16
Chapters where the measures concentrate — Chapter 72 Iron and steel (790) · Chapter 55 Man-made staple fibres (113) · Chapter 54 Man-made filaments (96) · Chapter 39 Plastics and articles thereof (57) · Chapter 40 Rubber and articles thereof (47)
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an HS code, a commodity code and a tariff code?
They are the same classification at different lengths, named differently by each customs administration. The HS code is the World Customs Organization's six digits and is identical in every country that applies it — a common language rather than a declarable code. A "commodity code" in British usage is the full code on a UK declaration: ten digits on import, eight on export, published by HMRC. In the EU the same idea splits in two: the eight-digit CN for export declarations and Intrastat, the ten-digit TARIC for import declarations. In the United States it is the ten-digit HTS on import and the ten-digit Schedule B number on export. In Türkiye it is the twelve-digit GTİP. "Tariff code" is not a standard at all — it is the everyday name for whichever of these the speaker's country uses. The working rule: everything up to digit six is shared and safe to quote across borders; everything after it has to be confirmed against the tariff of the country where the goods will actually be declared.
How do I find the correct HS commodity code for a product?
In five steps. (1) Write the goods down by their objective characteristics rather than their trade name: main material, function, stage of processing, composition percentages, power or capacity. (2) Search those words — material and function beat brand names and industry jargon — and read the parent heading path returned with each line, not just the description; alternatively start from the chapter directory and work downwards. (3) Read the candidate heading together with the applicable section and chapter notes, then apply the General Rules of Interpretation in order: heading terms and notes first, then the most specific description, then the component giving the goods their essential character, then the goods most akin. (4) Cross-check the six digits against the tariff of the country where the goods will be declared — national tariffs branch differently after digit six, and the final decision belongs to that administration. (5) Where the amounts are significant or the classification is genuinely arguable, apply for a binding ruling: Binding Tariff Information in the EU, an Advance Tariff Ruling in the UK, a binding ruling from CBP in the United States, Bağlayıcı Tarife Bilgisi (BTB) in Türkiye. A binding ruling is the only answer that obliges a customs administration; a lookup page — including this one — is a reading aid, not a legal basis.
How is import duty calculated in Türkiye — what is the formula?
Customs duty = customs value × the rate matching the goods' HS code and country of origin. The customs value is the price of the goods plus freight and insurance up to the Turkish border (CIF basis). But that is not the total tax on an import: additional customs duty is charged on the same base, excise is added for excisable goods, and VAT comes last — calculated on the customs value plus every tax paid at customs plus the costs incurred up to registration of the declaration. The items are therefore chained, and a landed-cost estimate built on the customs duty rate alone is systematically short. Rates are refreshed every year through the annexes to the Import Regime Decree; the rates on this page come from the 2026 annexes, and any high-value calculation should be verified against the text in force on the declaration date.
How can I estimate landed cost including customs duty before shipping?
Add up what is knowable, then carry what is not as a scenario. Knowable: price of the goods + freight to the border + insurance = customs value; then customs duty from the code and the origin column, additional customs duty, any anti-dumping or safeguard duty, excise where it applies, and VAT last, on the sum of all of those plus the costs incurred up to registration of the declaration; then brokerage, port and delivery-order charges and inland transport. Keep VAT on its own line: a VAT-registered importer normally recovers it, so it is cash flow rather than product cost — it becomes a real cost only where there is no right of deduction. Not knowable before shipping: whether customs accepts your classification, your proof of origin and your declared value, the exchange rate on the registration date, and storage or demurrage caused by inspection or congestion. Finally, read the incoterm — EXW/FCA/FOB leave duties with the buyer, CIF/CIP move freight and insurance to the seller but not the duties, DAP/DPU leave the import declaration with the buyer, and DDP puts the duties on the seller, who must be able to act as declarant in the destination country. The calculator on this page covers the tax chain for imports into Türkiye; for another destination the structure is the same but the rates, the VAT treatment and the code length are national.
What is an import tax, and how is it different from customs duty?
"Import tax" is not one tax but the everyday name for all the charges that arise when goods are imported: customs duty, additional customs duty, the housing fund levy and anti-dumping duty where they apply, excise duty, and import VAT. Customs duty is only the first of those, calculated on the customs value according to the HS code and the country of origin. The practical consequence: a product carrying "10% customs duty" does not add 10% to your landed cost — because VAT is charged on the sum of all the preceding items, the effective burden is noticeably higher.
How is duty calculated on a personal order from Shein, Temu or AliExpress?
Personal consignments are not taxed item by item from the HS code; a single flat tax applies instead. The base is the price of the goods plus the shipping charge, and the rate depends on the country the parcel is dispatched from — lower from the EU, higher from everywhere else. What decides it is where the parcel physically ships from, not who runs the website. If the consignment value exceeds the ceiling set for the simplified declaration, it leaves that regime and is declared as a normal import under its HS code. Both the rate and the ceiling are set by presidential decree and revised periodically — the August 2024 revision cut the ceiling to EUR 30 and set the rate at 30% from the EU and 60% from other countries — so confirm the decree in force before ordering. The courier's clearance fee is charged separately and is not part of the tax.
I am importing wholesale from Alibaba — how is the tax calculated?
Commercial quantities do not qualify for the simplified regime; the goods are declared as a normal import under their HS code. The sequence is: establish the customs value (goods + freight + insurance), apply the customs duty and additional customs duty for that code and country of origin, check whether an anti-dumping duty is in force — this is common on Chinese-origin goods and can dwarf the customs duty — and finally calculate VAT on the sum of all of those plus the costs incurred up to registration of the declaration. Look up your product's code on this page to read the rates, then enter your own customs value in the calculator to see the breakdown line by line.
Which code should I give my buyer when exporting?
The first six digits. The destination country's tariff may branch differently from the seventh digit onwards, and the final classification decision there belongs to that country's customs administration. The cleanest route is to state the six-digit HS on the invoice and ask the buyer to confirm the full code against their own tariff. If the buyer is in the EU, the first eight digits — the Combined Nomenclature — are common ground already.
Are the HS code and the GTİP the same thing?
They are two levels of the same system. The HS is the World Customs Organization's six-digit international classification; the GTİP is the 12-digit code Türkiye uses on declarations, and its first six digits are identical to the HS. The digits in between are not purely national either: because of the Customs Union, digits 7 to 10 are shared with EU members and only the last two are specific to Türkiye. Six digits is the safe reference for correspondence outside the EU, while a Turkish declaration carries all twelve.
Can I rely on the rate shown here for my declaration?
No. This page is informational — a convenient reading of published official sources, not a legal basis. What binds is the Import Regime published in the Official Gazette and the customs administration's application of it. Where the amounts are significant or the classification is arguable, obtain Binding Tariff Information; but note what it does and does not do. A binding ruling binds the classification of the goods, not the duty rate attached to it — the rate is always read from the Import Regime in force on the date the declaration is registered, and it can change during the year. The protection also starts with the issued decision, not with the application.
My broker gives a different code for the same product — who is right?
Settle it with documents rather than opinions. Put the technical file on the table — material percentages, function, stage of manufacture — then read the heading texts together with the section and chapter notes. If both codes still look defensible, work through the General Rules of Interpretation in order: heading terms and notes first, then the most specific description, then essential character. If it remains contested, apply for a binding ruling.
Why does the rate differ by country, and is the preferential rate applied automatically?
The difference comes from the trade regime, not from the product: the Customs Union, free trade agreements and the Generalised System of Preferences each produce their own column. The preferential rate is not automatic — without valid origin evidence on the declaration (EUR.1/EUR-MED or an origin declaration under an FTA; a statement on origin from a registered exporter under the GSP; A.TR for free circulation of EU industrial goods) the third-country rate applies. Origin is where the goods were produced, not where they were loaded, and you also need to show that they were transported directly or not manipulated in transit.
I cannot find my product in the search results — what should I do?
Search the words that describe what the item is — main material, function, stage of processing — rather than a brand name or industry jargon. The search only covers the bottom-level 12-digit lines, so higher-level headings never come back as results; if nothing lands, type the 4- or 6-digit heading code and work down through the lines beneath it. Tariff texts often end in an "Other" line that only makes sense through the headings above it. For some goods, searching the English HS wording produces a better hit than the Turkish.
What happens to my past declarations if a code changes?
Each declaration is assessed under the tariff in force on the date it was registered, so a later change does not retroactively make it wrong. Continuing to use a code that closed at the year change, however, will get the declaration rejected. At the start of each year, review the codes on your product records, your contract annexes and the scope of any binding rulings you hold — a nomenclature amendment can invalidate a ruling that has not yet reached the end of its validity period.
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