Duty, Business Tax and Commodity Tax in Taiwan

Most miscalculated import bills come from treating three separate taxes as one. Their bases differ, the order they are applied differs, and each later tax includes the earlier ones in its base. Getting the stacking right is what makes an estimate accurate.

Last updated:2026-08

The three bases are different

Import taxes stack: duty is charged on the customs value, commodity tax comes next, and the business tax base contains both. Change the order and the amount changes.

Tax	Base	Rate	Scope
Customs duty	Customs value (CIF)	By tariff code	All imports
Commodity tax	Customs value + duty	Per the Commodity Tax Act	Seven categories
Tobacco and alcohol tax	Per the relevant act	Mainly specific	Tobacco, alcohol
Business tax	Customs value + duty + commodity tax	5%	All imports

The authority is Article 20 of the Business Tax Act (加值型及非加值型營業稅法).

Duty is the only rate you have to look up

The duty rate is not fixed — it is determined by the tariff code. Taiwan's schedule has 12,594 lines with rates from 0% to over 500%.

This is the only one of the three that requires a lookup; the other two are fixed or enumerated. See The complete HS Code guide and the Taiwan import tariff tables.

Commodity tax: seven categories

Under the Commodity Tax Act (貨物稅條例), the following carry commodity tax whether produced domestically or imported, collected by Customs at import:

Category	Basis	Rate or amount
Rubber tyres	Ad valorem	10% for bus and truck tyres
Cement	Specific	Portland blast-furnace NT$280/tonne; substitute and other NT$440/tonne
Beverages	Ad valorem	Unsweetened and qualifying pure juices exempt
Flat glass	Ad valorem	Per the Act
Oil and gas	Specific	Per the Act
Electrical appliances	Ad valorem	Per the Act
Vehicles	Ad valorem	Passenger cars 12%; trucks, buses and others 15%; motorcycles 17%

Personal shoppers get caught by appliances and beverages more than anything else. Bringing in an appliance or a case of sweetened drinks adds commodity tax on top of duty and business tax, and that commodity tax then enters the business tax base — it is effectively charged twice.

The beverage exemption is worth remembering precisely: no added sugar, plus pure fruit juice, fruit syrup, concentrated syrup, concentrated juice and pure vegetable juice meeting national standards. The test is added sugar, not how healthy the drink is.

Ad valorem and specific duties

Both appear across these taxes.

Ad valorem charges a percentage of the customs value — the higher the price, the higher the tax. Most duty and commodity tax works this way.

Specific charges by weight, volume or quantity, independent of price. Cement per tonne is the clearest example; tobacco and alcohol tax uses it heavily.

The practical consequence: cheap but heavy goods can face a very high effective rate. A specific duty on a low-value bulk shipment can exceed the value of the goods.

A full calculation

An appliance from Japan: goods NT$20,000, freight NT$3,000, insurance NT$200. Assume a 5% tariff rate and 13% commodity tax (ad valorem; the actual rate depends on the item):

Step	Calculation	Amount
Customs value	20,000 + 3,000 + 200	23,200
Duty	23,200 × 5%	1,160
Commodity tax	(23,200 + 1,160) × 13%	3,167
Business tax	(23,200 + 1,160 + 3,167) × 5%	1,376
Total		5,703

Duty alone gives NT$1,160 — the real figure is nearly five times that. Commodity tax is the largest single line for this kind of product and the one most often omitted.

Verify the actual rate against the tariff code for your goods, and run figures through the Taiwan import duty calculator.

Who collects what

Both commodity tax and business tax are collected by Customs at the point of import; no separate filing is required. The bill you receive is a single document listing three or four items.

This is also why the scope of the exemption matters: the NT$2,000 threshold waives duty and the business tax and commodity tax Customs collects — all three, not duty alone.

Tobacco and alcohol tax

The fourth tax, and the one that most changes the arithmetic when it applies.

Tobacco and alcohol are governed by their own statute and are charged largely on a specific basis — by volume, alcoholic strength or quantity rather than by value. They are also excluded from the low-value exemption entirely, so a single inexpensive bottle is assessed in full.

The stacking order places it alongside commodity tax:

Step	Base
Customs duty	Customs value
Tobacco and alcohol tax	Per the relevant statute
Business tax	Customs value + duty + tobacco and alcohol tax

The effective rate on inexpensive alcohol can be very high, because a specific charge takes no account of how little the bottle cost. This is the single most common source of surprise on personal shipments from Japan and Europe.

Estimating when you do not know the rate

Three sequential questions get most of the way there without looking anything up:

Does the product fall in one of the seven commodity tax categories? If yes, the estimate needs three layers rather than two, and commodity tax is usually the largest of them.

Is the duty rate likely to be zero? Roughly half of the electronics and toy lines are zero-rated; apparel and leather have none. Knowing which side of that divide a product sits on is often more informative than the exact percentage.

Is the consignment above the exemption threshold? Below it, all three taxes fall away together.

Where any answer is uncertain, run the figures through the Taiwan import duty calculator rather than assuming — the difference between a two-layer and a three-layer calculation is large enough to change a purchasing decision.

Further reading

For the full structure with worked examples, see the Taiwan import tax guide. For how customs value is built, see How customs value is calculated.

Primary sources: Commodity Tax Act (貨物稅條例) and Business Tax Act (加值型及非加值型營業稅法).

Frequently asked questions

Which taxes apply to imports into Taiwan?

Customs duty and a 5% business tax always apply. Goods listed in the Commodity Tax Act carry commodity tax as well, and tobacco and alcohol carry their own tax. The four have different bases, and the business tax base includes both duty and commodity tax.

Why is business tax not 5% of the goods price?

Under Article 20 of the Business Tax Act, business tax on imports is computed on the customs value plus import duties, and where commodity tax or tobacco and alcohol tax applies, on that total plus the additional tax. The base is therefore customs value plus duty, not the goods price.

Which goods carry commodity tax?

Seven categories under the Commodity Tax Act: rubber tyres, cement, beverages, flat glass, oil and gas, electrical appliances, and vehicles. It applies to domestic and imported goods alike, and Customs collects it at import. Appliances and beverages catch personal shoppers most often.

How is commodity tax calculated?

Either ad valorem or specific. Passenger cars are 12%, trucks buses and other vehicles 15%, motorcycles 17%. Cement is specific: NT$280 per tonne for Portland blast-furnace cement and NT$440 per tonne for substitute and other cement.

Do all beverages carry commodity tax?

No. Unsweetened beverages, and pure fruit juice, fruit syrup, concentrated syrup, concentrated juice and pure vegetable juice meeting national standards, are exempt. Sweetened drinks fall within the taxable scope.