Is import duty charged on the price I paid, or on something else?

On the value customs accepts, which is not necessarily the invoice. Customs builds its own figure — in Nigeria through the VIN valuation system, in Ghana from the VIN and model year, in Peru against an official reference table — adds freight and insurance to reach CIF, and then applies each charge to a specific base. Some lines sit on CIF, some on the duty figure only, some on FOB, and VAT sits on everything stacked above it.

Why can a duty rate not be quoted as a single percentage?

Because the tariff in these markets moves with the HS code, the engine capacity, the model year and sometimes the vehicle age. Ghana bands duty by engine size and adds a separate overage penalty by age. Nigeria adds a Green Tax that is nil below 2,000cc and 4% at 4,000cc and above. A single headline percentage is wrong for most of the cars actually being shipped.

Which of these markets is cheapest to clear?

The Gulf. GCC duty is 5% of CIF across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain, and Qatar and Kuwait have no VAT at all. Saudi Arabia’s 15% VAT is the highest tax line in the group, and its five-year age rule is the tightest restriction. West Africa is more expensive but far deeper in volume: Nigeria stacks duty, levy, Green Tax, surcharge, ETLS and VAT, and Ghana adds eight separate charges on top of a banded duty.

What is the largest avoidable cost in these markets?

The age penalty. Ghana charges 5% of CIF on a passenger car above ten years and 20% above twelve, so the same model can cost materially more to clear simply because of its model year. Nigeria’s 12-year cap is a hard barrier rather than a penalty: a unit over the line does not clear at any price. Buying to the year, rather than to the price, is what protects the margin.

Tools

Calculateur de droits de douane et de coût rendu

Calculez ce que coûte réellement une voiture une fois débarquée. Choisissez la destination, saisissez le prix FOB, le fret et les caractéristiques du véhicule : le calculateur applique la pile de taxes du pays dans l’ordre de son système douanier.

Vos chiffres

Pays

Prix FOB (USD)

Fret et assurance (USD)

Assurance (USD)

Cylindrée (cm³)

Âge du véhicule (années)

Taux de droits de douane (%)

Modifiable à dessein : la tranche dépend du code SH, du moteur et de l’âge, alors utilisez le taux que votre transitaire confirme.

12 years. Nigerian Customs works to a hard 12-year cap; some agents still quote a 10-year reading, so the year is confirmed before money moves.

Coût rendu estimé

Valeur CIF: $13,620
Droits de douane (20%): $2,724
Import levy (used vehicles) (5%): $681
Surcharge (7%): $191
ETLS levy (ECOWAS) (0.50%): $68
CISS / FOB levy (1%): $120
VAT (7.50%): $1,305
Toutes les taxes sauf les droits: $5,089

Coût rendu$18,709

37.36%% du CIF — Les limites d'âge, les voies de certification et les lignes de taxes proviennent de textes publiés et sont vérifiées par notre équipe, mais la douane évalue chaque véhicule individuellement. Considérez ces chiffres comme une base de calcul, pas comme une évaluation.

Données de taxes

Duty and age limit by destination

Reviewed 24 September 2026

Pays	Âge limite	Données de taxes
NigeriaWest Africa	Used vehicles carry a hard 12-year age cap, assessed at the port on arrival (some clearing agents still work to a 10-year readi...	Barème publié
GhanaWest Africa	Ghana Standards Authority rules apply by shipment date: vehicles shipped on or after 1 October 2026 need inspection in the coun...	Barème publié
Ivory CoastWest Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles and a COC or equivalent certificate of conformity must be in place before shipment.	Barème publié
SenegalWest Africa	An age limit applies, and in practice units much older than about eight years are not accepted.	Barème publié
Burkina FasoWest Africa	Clearance happens at the port of entry — Lomé, Abidjan or Tema — and the unit arrives by road.	Barème publié
TogoWest Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles and a conformity certificate is required before shipment.	Barème publié
GuineaWest Africa	An age limit applies and a conformity certificate is required before shipment.	Barème publié
BeninWest Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles.	Barème publié
MaliWest Africa	Clearance takes place at the port of entry, most often Abidjan, Dakar or Tema, and the unit then travels by road to Bamako.	Barème publié
Sierra LeoneWest Africa	Used-vehicle admission is relatively open, with a conformity certificate required.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
Cape VerdeWest Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles, and island logistics push the landed cost up sharply.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
LiberiaWest Africa	Used-vehicle admission is relatively open.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
GambiaWest Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
MauritaniaWest Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
Guinea-BissauWest Africa	Used-vehicle admission is relatively open.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
NigerWest Africa	Clearance takes place at Cotonou or Lomé and the unit continues by road to Niamey.	Barème publié
UAEMiddle East	There is no hard age cap, though older units face stricter inspection and some insurers and re-export buyers will not take them.	Barème publié
Saudi ArabiaMiddle East	Used vehicles must be no more than five years old excluding the year of import, so a unit imported in 2026 has to be model year...	Barème publié
JordanMiddle East	A November 2025 rule bans the import of accident-damaged cars, and electric vehicles carry a three-year age cap.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
IraqMiddle East	Federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region apply different rules, and the Kurdish region’s gates in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah are the l...	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
QatarMiddle East	Used vehicles generally need to be within about five years old, and conformity certification is required.	Barème publié
KuwaitMiddle East	Used vehicles are generally subject to an age cap of about five years and a conformity certificate is required.	Barème publié
OmanMiddle East	An age limit applies to used vehicles and a conformity certificate is required.	Barème publié
LebanonMiddle East	Age and compliance thresholds are relatively permissive compared with the GCC.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
YemenMiddle East	Import thresholds are low, but there is no functioning letter-of-credit channel.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
BahrainMiddle East	An age limit applies to used vehicle imports and conformity certification is required.	Barème publié
TurkeyMiddle East	Used-vehicle import requires authorisation and carries a high tax burden, so a used-car programme is only realistic where a spe...	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
SyriaMiddle East	Sanctions affect banking and shipping.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
IranMiddle East	Sanctions constrain banking and shipping arrangements.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
PeruSouth America	Used vehicles are admissible within age and mileage limits — about five years in practice — and the vehicle must be left-hand d...	Barème publié
BoliviaSouth America	Light vehicles up to six years and heavy vehicles up to eight years are admitted under DS 29836; accident-damaged and petrol-to...	Barème publié
VenezuelaSouth America	There is no single published age limit.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
EcuadorSouth America	An age limit applies to used vehicles, about five years in practice, and safeguard and quota measures change by decree.	Barème publié
ParaguaySouth America	Used passenger cars up to ten years old are admitted under Ley 4333/2011.	Barème publié
BrazilSouth America	Used-vehicle import is not a practical route.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
ArgentinaSouth America	Resolution 293/2025 is the opening to work with: 4x4 off-roaders and the specified industrial categories.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
ColombiaSouth America	Used imports require qualifying for an exception and are quota-constrained, so a used-vehicle programme only makes sense where ...	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
ChileSouth America	Used vehicles cannot be registered.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
UruguaySouth America	Used vehicles are admitted only by exception under Decreto 266/013, which requires a statement of necessity.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
DR CongoCentral Africa	Import requires compliance review through several agencies plus a full supporting document set.	Barème publié
CameroonCentral Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles and a conformity certificate is required before shipment.	Barème publié
CongoCentral Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles, and the CEMAC tariff applies on top of the conformity requirement.	Barème publié
Equatorial GuineaCentral Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles and island logistics add to the cost.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
GabonCentral Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles, with conformity certification required.	Barème publié
ChadCentral Africa	Clearance happens outside the country and the unit arrives by road; inland transit insurance is confirmed before dispatch.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
Central African RepublicCentral Africa	Clearance takes place at Douala and the vehicle travels on by road, with the inland route subject to the security situation.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
AlgeriaNorth Africa	Two channels exist.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
LibyaNorth Africa	A local import permit is required and every order runs on advance T/T.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
EgyptNorth Africa	Used-vehicle import is constrained by age and licensing thresholds, so this is treated as a new-vehicle market.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
MoroccoNorth Africa	Used-vehicle import is closed apart from a small number of exceptions; treat the market as new-vehicle territory.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
TunisiaNorth Africa	Used-vehicle import is heavily restricted; the market is served with new vehicles.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
SudanNorth Africa	An import licence is a prerequisite and hard-currency availability shapes what can be ordered.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
AngolaSouthern Africa	An age limit applies to used vehicles — about five to eight years in practice — and conformity certification is required.	Barème publié
MadagascarSouthern Africa	Used vehicles are admitted with a conformity certificate required.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur
EthiopiaOther LHD markets	Fuel-burning vehicles cannot be imported.	Confirmé au cas par cas selon le tarif en vigueur

Les limites d'âge, les voies de certification et les lignes de taxes proviennent de textes publiés et sont vérifiées par notre équipe, mais la douane évalue chaque véhicule individuellement. Considérez ces chiffres comme une base de calcul, pas comme une évaluation.

Straight answers

How these charges actually work

Four things decide the bill: what customs says the car is worth, what it is built on, how old it is, and how the destination stacks its levies. The rest is arithmetic.

Is import duty charged on the price I paid, or on something else?: On the value customs accepts, which is not necessarily the invoice. Customs builds its own figure — in Nigeria through the VIN valuation system, in Ghana from the VIN and model year, in Peru against an official reference table — adds freight and insurance to reach CIF, and then applies each charge to a specific base. Some lines sit on CIF, some on the duty figure only, some on FOB, and VAT sits on everything stacked above it.
Why can a duty rate not be quoted as a single percentage?: Because the tariff in these markets moves with the HS code, the engine capacity, the model year and sometimes the vehicle age. Ghana bands duty by engine size and adds a separate overage penalty by age. Nigeria adds a Green Tax that is nil below 2,000cc and 4% at 4,000cc and above. A single headline percentage is wrong for most of the cars actually being shipped.
Which of these markets is cheapest to clear?: The Gulf. GCC duty is 5% of CIF across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain, and Qatar and Kuwait have no VAT at all. Saudi Arabia’s 15% VAT is the highest tax line in the group, and its five-year age rule is the tightest restriction. West Africa is more expensive but far deeper in volume: Nigeria stacks duty, levy, Green Tax, surcharge, ETLS and VAT, and Ghana adds eight separate charges on top of a banded duty.
What is the largest avoidable cost in these markets?: The age penalty. Ghana charges 5% of CIF on a passenger car above ten years and 20% above twelve, so the same model can cost materially more to clear simply because of its model year. Nigeria’s 12-year cap is a hard barrier rather than a penalty: a unit over the line does not clear at any price. Buying to the year, rather than to the price, is what protects the margin.