The three invoices you receive from Boloo Forwarding are associated with a single shipment. The invoices for both air and sea freight are the same! 🙂

The first invoice is the transport invoice. As you can see in the sample invoice, it includes the transportation costs from China to the Netherlands, local costs in China (pick-up costs for EXW incoterm), and the potential arrangement of an export license. The local costs in China are only invoiced if you have chosen the EXW incoterm, which covers the expenses for picking up the goods from your supplier. The costs for the export license will be included in the invoice only if we need to arrange it for you. In many cases, the suppliers handle this process.

Sample Transport Invoice

The second invoice consists of three items: import VAT, import duties, and an advance commission fee (1.5% of the total amount). It is the result of the import declaration. These items are calculated based on the import declaration. In your dashboard, under the respective booking, you can find the UTB (Uniform Trade Document) received from customs under 'Document 1'. It provides detailed information on how they arrived at the costs for import duties and import VAT.

Sample Customs Invoice

In the EU, you are required to pay VAT on goods, but in China, this is not the case. The customs authorities determine the amount based on the total value (derived from the commercial invoice) to be paid as VAT. However, please note that this amount is not exactly 21% of the total value. For example, they may include 70% of the transportation costs in the total value. This total amount will be listed on the invoice as "VAT on goods" or "import VAT." Just like other VAT amounts, you can reclaim this as input tax from the Tax Authority. As a Belgian business performing services in the Netherlands, you can also reclaim VAT in the Netherlands.

You also have the option to apply for Article 23 authorization. With this authorization, the VAT costs are shifted, and you are not required to pay them. In that case, the invoice will show an amount of €0 for VAT.

Import duties are determined based on the type of product you are importing. The category of the product is determined by the HS code. You can check under which HS code your goods fall and the associated percentage on this website.

In the dashboard, you can search for the correct HS code for your product using the "HS code Finder." Additionally, you can also calculate the customs costs using our calculator.

The third invoice consists of the costs for the transportation of the pallets/individual boxes and the costs for the import declaration (customs clearance). These are the costs you pay as a result of the customs spending time on clearing your shipment. For sea freight, the costs for customs clearance are €32.50, while for air freight, it is slightly lower at €27.50. You can find the costs for LMD (Last Mile Delivery) in this article.
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