Export Duty Calculator

Export duty is the mirror image of import duty in almost every respect, and modelling it with the same tools produces bad numbers. It is assessed on FOB rather than CIF. It is never recoverable. It applies to a narrow set of commodities rather than to everything. And it is rarely a flat percentage, because the policy purpose is usually to respond to price — capturing windfall when markets spike, or restraining exports when domestic supply tightens.

Export Duty Calculator handles the mechanisms governments actually use. Ad valorem on FOB value. Specific duty at a fixed amount per tonne. Sliding scale tiers where a published reference price selects the applicable rate for the whole shipment. Threshold formulas that tax only the portion of price above a trigger. Minimum export price floors that assess duty as though you sold higher than you did. Stacked cesses and levies with their own separate bases. Each of these behaves differently as prices move, and the difference is not academic.

Because most regimes assess on an official reference price rather than your invoice, the calculator separates the two deliberately: enter what you actually sold for and what the authority says the price is, and see the gap between realised revenue and taxable value. The output is net FOB proceeds per tonne and in total, the effective duty rate on your realised price, and a sensitivity table showing where the cliff edges in the tier structure fall relative to where the market is now.

• Five duty mechanisms: Ad valorem percentage, specific amount per unit, sliding scale by reference price band, threshold formula on the excess above a trigger price, and a combined rate-plus-specific structure.
• Reference price handling: Assess duty on an official published price independent of your realised sale price, and see the difference between taxable value and actual revenue.
• Editable tier tables: Build the sliding scale bands for your commodity and jurisdiction, with rows you can add and remove.
• Stacked levy support: Model a duty and a separate cess or export levy simultaneously, each with its own base and mechanism, as several real regimes operate.
• Minimum export price floor: Flags when your negotiated price falls below the floor and calculates the duty consequence on the floor value.
• FOB derivation from CIF: Enter a CIF or CFR price and strip freight and insurance to get the correct FOB duty base.
• Net proceeds analysis: Gross FOB revenue less duty, levies, port charges and inland costs, expressed per tonne and in total.
• Effective rate on realised price: The only figure that lets you compare a specific duty against an ad valorem one honestly.
• Price sensitivity table: Duty and net proceeds across a range of reference prices, exposing the cliff edges where crossing a tier boundary jumps the levy on the whole shipment.
• Mechanism presets: Illustrative structures for the common regime types, clearly labelled as structural examples rather than current rates.
• Entirely client-side: No account, no upload, nothing stored.

1. Enter your shipment. Quantity in tonnes or units, and your realised FOB price per unit. If you have quoted CIF, use the freight deduction fields to derive FOB.
2. Set the duty base. Choose whether duty is assessed on your invoice value or on an official reference price, and enter the published reference figure if applicable.
3. Choose the mechanism. Ad valorem, specific, sliding scale, threshold formula, or combined — match whatever the exporting country actually applies to your commodity.
4. Build the tier table if using a sliding scale. Enter each band with its trigger price and applicable rate or per-tonne amount.
5. Add any separate cess or levy. Several regimes run two charges in parallel with different structures, so model them separately rather than combining the rates.
6. Enter port and inland costs. These sit outside the duty calculation but determine your true net proceeds.
7. Read the sensitivity table. Check where the nearest tier boundary sits relative to the current reference price — that proximity is your main forward risk.
8. Verify before contracting. Confirm the current schedule with the exporting country’s authority, because these regimes change quickly and sometimes without notice.

Example 1 — Sliding scale cliff edge. A commodity levy has bands at 750, 800 and 850 per tonne with rates of 3, 7.5 and 12.5 percent. At a reference price of 795 you pay 3 percent, or 23.85 per tonne. At 805 you pay 7.5 percent, or 60.38. A ten-unit move in the reference price has more than doubled the levy, because the band rate applies to the whole value rather than to the increment. On 25,000 tonnes that is nearly a million of difference triggered by a monthly price publication.

Example 2 — Reference price above your realised price. You sold at 690 per tonne into a soft market, but the official reference price for the period is 730. Duty is assessed on 730 regardless. At a 10 percent rate you pay 73 per tonne on revenue of 690, so your effective rate on money actually received is 10.6 percent rather than 10. Exporters routinely underestimate this, and it bites hardest exactly when margins are already thin.

Example 3 — Specific duty in a falling market. A fixed levy of 55 per tonne is 5.5 percent at a price of 1,000 and 11 percent at 500. Specific duties are regressive against price, which is why they are punishing in a downturn and why exporters lobby to convert them to ad valorem when markets weaken. Comparing a specific duty to a percentage one requires converting at the price you actually expect to realise.

Example 4 — Threshold formula. Duty applies at 40 percent of the amount by which the reference price exceeds a trigger of 600. At 640 the taxable excess is 40, giving 16 per tonne — an effective rate of 2.5 percent. At 900 the excess is 300, giving 120 per tonne, or 13.3 percent. The mechanism is designed to capture windfall while leaving normal-market trade largely untaxed, and its effective rate climbs steeply with price.

• Model the mechanism you actually face: Sliding scales and threshold formulas behave nothing like flat percentages as prices move.
• See the reference price gap: Duty on an official price you did not achieve is a real margin cost that invoice-based models miss entirely.
• Find the cliff edges before they find you: Knowing you are five units below a tier boundary is material contract information.
• Price contracts on net proceeds: Gross FOB is not what you receive, and export duty is never recoverable.
• Compare specific against ad valorem honestly: Converting both to an effective rate at your expected price is the only fair comparison.
• Model stacked charges properly: A duty and a levy with different bases do not add up to a single combined rate.
• Stress-test before committing: The sensitivity table shows what happens to margin if the reference price moves against you.
• Free and private: No sign-up, nothing uploaded, instant results.