How to Calculate Duties and Taxes on Imports to Denmark

Denmark charges a flat 25% VAT on imports, on the goods, freight and insurance plus duty and fees, with no reduced rate for food or medicine. Goods ordered online from outside the EU worth up to EUR 150 pay EUR 3 duty per customs line (varepost), and all online orders pay a EUR 2 handling fee per line since 1 November 2026. The carrier’s own fee can be the largest part of the bill.

• Valuation basis: CIF
• Tax base: Customs value plus duties and other charges due on import, plus incidental costs such as transport and insurance to the first place of destination. Under IOSS, VAT is on the sale price at checkout.
• VAT standard rate: 25%. No reduced rate. Your Europe lists a 0% rate.
• Reduced rates: None listed

IOSS: non-EU sellers and marketplaces may register in one member state, through an EU intermediary unless their country has a qualifying recovery agreement, to charge destination VAT on consignments up to EUR 150, excluding excise goods. Without IOSS, Special Arrangements or standard import VAT apply. From 1 November 2026 product identifiers are mandatory on these distance sales.

• A January 2026 political agreement (Finance Ministry) sets aside funds to lower food VAT from 2028. Read as an official excerpt, with no bill seen, so it stays out of the rates.

If your business is registered for VAT, Toldstyrelsen says you don't pay import VAT at the border. You report it on the VAT return for the period. With full deduction rights, you enter it twice: in the box for goods and services from abroad, and as purchase VAT. Without deduction rights, it goes only in the first box.

The customs side runs through DMS Import, where you can view your declarations. Each month Toldstyrelsen produces an import specification listing the VAT per declaration, usually around the 5th or 6th. That's the document to reconcile against your return. A new importer needs to register first, and Toldstyrelsen has a guide for getting started. A customs broker can file in DMS for you.

Duty is still paid, since the VAT treatment doesn't change it. Toldstyrelsen handles customs, and Skattestyrelsen handles VAT returns.

Denmark's single rate makes the arithmetic shorter than almost anywhere else in the EU: 25% on the lot. The variable part is the duty and the carrier.

The count is per varepost, and goods with the same customs code count once. Three cotton T-shirts are one line. A cotton T-shirt and denim jeans are two. Up to EUR 150, you pay EUR 3 plus EUR 2 for each line, and Toldstyrelsen's own figures work out at about DKK 22 and DKK 15. Above EUR 150, normal duty rates replace the EUR 3, and the fee stays. The EUR 3 ends on 1 July 2028, while the fee is permanent.

Legally the declarant owes the fee: often the carrier, or the platform or its representative under IOSS. Expect to pay it anyway, sometimes at checkout, sometimes to the carrier on delivery. Toldstyrelsen uses DKK 200 to illustrate a carrier's clearance fee on a DKK 100 purchase, and says clearly that this is an example, not a tariff. Some webshops declare the goods themselves, so no such fee arises. PostNord, DHL or FedEx can give you the current figure. The import duty calculator can run your own numbers, and landed cost explains how to build them into a price.

1. Find the customs code: use the HS code classifier. It decides how many lines you have and the duty rate.
2. Convert to euro: test the goods value against EUR 150.
3. Charge duty: EUR 3 per line at or under EUR 150, or the normal rate on the customs value above it.
4. Add the fee: EUR 2 per line on any online sale, at any value.
5. Add the VAT base: goods, freight, insurance, duty and fee.
6. Take 25%: there’s no other rate to choose from for ordinary goods.
7. Add the carrier’s fee: if the carrier does the declaration, it charges for that separately.

Running vest and a head torch, no IOSS, two lines, using the ECB rate for 5 November 2026 (EUR 1 = DKK 7.4747).

Toldstyrelsen uses its own rate and rounds, so expect small differences.

Bike parts above EUR 150, one line, tariff rate assumed at 4.7%.

Stock to a VAT-registered company in Aarhus, tariff rate assumed at 2%.

Nothing is paid to customs for the VAT, so cash due at import is the DKK 1,900 duty.

• Looking for a reduced rate: Denmark has none for food, medicine or clothing. Don’t copy a neighbour’s rate table.
• Ignoring the carrier’s fee: on small orders it can be higher than the goods, so compare carriers or choose a shop that declares for you.
• Using the old limit: any guide quoting a DKK duty threshold is out of date. The relief ended on 1 July 2026.
• Assuming your order date protects you: what counts is when the goods are declared.
• Paying import VAT in cash when registered: report it on the return and reconcile against the monthly import specification.

Order date doesn't count. Toldstyrelsen's rule is that goods customs-declared from 1 July 2026 pay the EUR 3, and goods declared from 1 November 2026 pay the fee. An order placed before those dates can still be caught if the parcel arrives afterwards.

Returns. The handling fee isn't refunded when goods are returned.

Goods shipped from inside the EU. Neither the fee nor the EUR 3 applies. What counts is where the goods ship from, not where the webshop's name suggests it is.

Gifts. Non-commercial gifts between private individuals keep the EU relief up to EUR 45.

Business consignments. Toldstyrelsen's consumer pages don't cover them. They aren't distance sales, so they pay the normal tariff, as in our stock order example. Irish, German and Austrian customs instructions say so directly.

Rates. Skat states 25% for goods bought outside the EU, and Your Europe lists a 0% rate in certain cases. Check with Skattestyrelsen if you think your goods might qualify. Read de minimis for the EU rule, and IOSS and VAT if you sell into Denmark. This is guidance, not advice.