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No. The 19% is German import VAT (Einfuhrumsatzsteuer), not customs duty. On every TARIC line we read for wooden furniture and wooden-framed seats, the EU third-country duty on goods from India is 0%. The VAT is charged on the customs value plus duty plus transport to the first destination in the EU, and a VAT-registered business normally claims it back.
No. The 19% is German import VAT, not duty. Germany's standard VAT rate is 19% and it's charged when goods enter, while the EU customs duty on wooden furniture is 0% for Indian goods on every tariff line we read. If you're a VAT-registered business you can normally claim the import VAT back, so on most furniture orders the duty and tax line is mostly a cash-flow question.
The mix-up is common enough to have its own entry in our forum logs. A buyer pricing Indian wooden furniture for Germany looked it up on the German customs tariff site and wrote that the import duty "is 19%" (our forum signal FS-SHP-053, 2024). That buyer's story runs through our guide to working out the real import duty, so we won't retell it here. This page answers the narrow question with the lines read at source and dated, so you can check your own. One caveat. We read the wooden furniture and wooden seat lines only. Metal, cane, bamboo, plastic and upholstered-metal pieces sit on other lines, so run your own code.
From the German VAT Act, not the customs tariff. Section 12(1) of the Umsatzsteuergesetz sets the standard rate at 19%, and the same tax is charged on imports, where it's called Einfuhrumsatzsteuer, or EUSt (UStG section 12 (opens in a new tab), read 19 October 2026). German customs (Zoll) collects it at the border alongside any duty, which is why the two sit next to each other on a tariff lookup and on a customs bill.
So the buyer in our log didn't read a wrong number. He read the right number on the wrong line. On a German customs screen, look for "Zoll" or "Drittlandszollsatz" for duty, and "Einfuhrumsatzsteuer" for the VAT.
Zero, on the lines we read. We ran these codes in TARIC, the EU's tariff database, with India as the country of origin, for 19 October 2026.
| CN code | What it covers | Third-country duty |
|---|---|---|
| 9403 50 00 | Wooden bedroom furniture | 0% |
| 9403 60 10 | Wooden dining and living room furniture | 0% |
| 9403 60 90 | Other wooden furniture | 0% |
| 9401 61 00 | Upholstered seats with wooden frames | 0% |
| 9401 69 00 | Other seats with wooden frames | 0% |
TARIC also lists a 0% GSP preference on these lines, but with a 0% base rate there's nothing for it to cut. The EU-India free trade agreement doesn't change this picture either, because it isn't in force yet (status on India to the EU). Duty is set at EU level, so a Dutch, French or German importer sees the same 0%.
Two things can still put duty on a "furniture" shipment. The first is a different code. Metal, rattan, bamboo and plastic furniture, mattresses, lamps and furniture parts each have their own lines, so check yours on how to find your HS code. The second is small parcels. From 1 July 2026 to 1 July 2028, a flat €3 per item applies to low-value consignments up to €150 in intrinsic value (TARIC footnote TM01066, read 19 October 2026). That matters for cushion covers sent by post, not a container of tables.
More than the invoice. Under section 11 of the VAT Act, the import VAT base starts from the customs value of the goods and adds the import duties, plus the transport and other costs up to the first destination in the EU (UStG section 11 (opens in a new tab), read 19 October 2026). With 0% duty, that leaves the goods value and the freight.
For a container from Mundra to Hamburg, the base is the price of the furniture plus the sea freight and insurance to the EU, and the cost of moving it on to your warehouse where that destination is already fixed at import. Then 19% of that. On a full container that's a real sum, which is why the 19% looks like a cost when you first see it.
If you're a German business registered for VAT and the furniture is for your taxable business, normally yes. Import VAT is deductible as input tax on your VAT return, as Zoll explains on its page on input tax deduction (linked from our Germany page). Two groups don't get it back - consumers buying for themselves, and businesses that aren't VAT registered or make VAT-exempt sales. For them the 19% is a real cost.
Even for registered buyers, the cash leaves before the refund arrives. Whether a payment deferral applies to you is a question for your tax adviser. Put the EUSt in your cash plan for the month the container lands.
Not the duty. Four things that buyers forget while staring at the 19%:
Yes. The VAT base includes transport to the first EU destination, on top of the goods value and any duty.
No. Customs duty is set for the whole EU. VAT rates differ by member state, which is why each has its own page on India to the EU.
On the wooden lines we read, there's nothing to lower. The base duty is already 0%.
Yes, and you can't reclaim it. The same goes for a business that isn't VAT registered.
The 19% that shows up next to your furniture code is real money at the border, but it isn't duty and for most businesses it comes back. The duty is the line next to it, and for wooden furniture from India it reads zero. Spend the worry you saved on the timber evidence and the unloading, because those are the costs that stay.
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Which Indian town makes which wooden furniture, why duty is near zero at most borders, and the timber, biosecurity, tip-over and moisture checks that decide your order.
Why furniture is the paperwork-heavy home category: US Section 232, EUDR, UK fire rules, Australian tip-over rules and timber legality, with where Indian furniture is made.
Yash Khatri founded SourcingFrom to give buyers outside India the full picture of sourcing from India: what the country makes well, where it is made, who makes it and how it ships. He reviews every guide on the site and holds each one to the same rule: say what we know, show how sure we are, and say plainly where the evidence runs out. He also runs SourcingSync, the hands-on service that does the sourcing work for buyers, and Kirnova, the data and intelligence company behind SourcingFrom Intelligence.
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Duty is only one line on a US import from India. You also pay federal user fees (the merchandise processing fee on formal entries and, by sea, the harbor maintenance fee), a customs broker who often bills per entry and per tariff line, a customs bond, the ISF filing, destination port and freight-station charges, trucking from the port, and exam and storage costs if CBP selects the shipment. Couriers bundle some of this into their bill and sometimes get the tariff wrong.
Not lawfully, if the parcels are one order. Australia treats packages known to be part of the same order as one consignment and says deliberately structuring orders under A$1,000 is not acceptable. The UK applies its £135 line to the whole consignment. The US has suspended its duty-free allowance for every country, so there is nothing left to split under. New Zealand sets its full-declaration line at NZ$1,000 and charges levies per declaration. The legal ways to cut the cost are one proper entry, a trade-agreement rate with a certificate of origin, and checkout tax registration where you sell direct.
Not automatically. Since 1 January 2026 every tariff line from India can enter Australia at 0% under ECTA, but only with a certificate of origin from a designated Indian agency for that shipment. Without one, the Australian Border Force charges the general rate by default.
A quote that says "leather" tells you nothing about the animal, and in India the answer is often goat, sheep or buffalo rather than cowhide. Each behaves differently in a bag: goat is tough and small, sheep is soft and delicate, buffalo is thick, coarse and variable. Ask for the species, the tannage and the tannery in writing, check the grain yourself, and sample buffalo from the actual lot.
A custom rug from India usually arrives off-colour for one of five reasons: the colour was approved on a screen, the bulk yarn went into a different dye lot, the yarn looks different once woven into pile, the post-weaving wash shifted it, or it is being judged in different light or from the other end of the pile. Each has its own approval. Because returning a large rug to India is slow and costly, the approvals and the remedy belong in the order before weaving starts.
No. Urine does not tan leather, and the smell some buyers notice on Indian leather has ordinary causes: tannery residue left by poor washing and finishing, solvent finishes and bag-making glues, and moisture in packing and transit. Each smells different and has its own fix. Odour has no legal limit, so it has to go into the spec, with a closed-box check on bulk before you accept a shipment.
