Landed Cost Planner
Calculate true landed cost per unit with duty applied to cost plus freight, not cost alone, the customs-valuation basis most cost-only estimates miss.
Resources
How this works
Most customs regimes assess duty on the dutiable base, unit cost plus freight cost per unit, not on product cost alone. A landed-cost estimate that applies the duty rate only to cost understates the real per-unit cost whenever freight is a meaningful share of that dutiable base.
Key terms
- Dutiable base: unit cost plus freight cost per unit, the amount duty is actually calculated against.
- Landed cost: unit cost, freight, duty, and other flat per-unit fees combined, the true delivered cost of one unit.
Assumptions
- Duty rate applies uniformly to the full dutiable base, no tariff-line-specific carve-outs
- One duty rate and one freight allocation per unit
Limitations
- One shipment lane and one duty rate, not a full customs classification or multi-line-item tool
- Does not model insurance separately from freight
Sources
Standard CIF-basis customs valuation treatment (World Customs Organization Valuation Agreement framework).
Worked example
At a $10 unit cost with $8/unit freight, freight is 44% of the dutiable base. A cost-only duty calculation charges $2.50/unit duty on cost alone, a $21.00/unit landed cost. The correct calculation charges duty on cost plus freight, $4.50/unit duty, a $23.00/unit landed cost, a $2.00/unit understatement the cost-only method misses.
Common use cases
- Pricing an imported product accurately before committing to a purchase order
- Comparing a domestic supplier against an overseas one on true delivered cost
- Catching a cost-only landed-cost estimate that understates duty exposure