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How the number is made

A landed-cost estimate. Not a customs assessment.

Personal imports into South Africa and Botswana. We estimate the border costs, show our assumptions, then compare with a local listing when one is available.

Three steps
01 · READ

What you typed, or what the shop published

Describe the item (or paste a link). Amazon and Shein pages often block a scrape — describe is the default.

02 · CLASSIFY

A heading candidate, not a ruling

We only calculate when the product description maps to a supported HS heading. Unknown products no longer fall back to an arbitrary tariff. Customs classification can depend on material, construction, use and other details.

03 · ADD IT UP

After-duty cost

  • Customs value starts from the transaction value converted to destination currency. The app currently uses a market FX rate as a proxy; customs may apply an official customs exchange rate.
  • Import duty = customs value × the supported tariff rate. Additional, specific, anti-dumping or countervailing duties are not yet modelled.
  • South Africa VAT = 15% of customs value + 10% of customs value + non-rebated duty. The 10% uplift is omitted only when qualifying BLNS origin and export conditions are confirmed.
  • Botswana VAT model uses customs/transaction value + freight estimate + duty as the import value. The current standard VAT assumption is 14%.
  • Clearance is a service-fee estimate, not a statutory customs charge. The model currently uses R221 for South Africa and P160 for Botswana.
  • Estimated landed cost = customs value + duty + import VAT + shipping estimate + clearance estimate.
Important limits

AfterDuty is a consumer decision tool. It does not make a tariff determination, customs valuation ruling or customs assessment. Final amounts can change because of classification, origin, customs valuation, official exchange rates, exemptions, additional duties and carrier fees.