Finland applies EU customs laws and regulations, as well as common customs tariffs from the United States and other non-EU countries. When products enter the EU, they need to be declared to customs according to their classification in the Combined Nomenclature (CN). The Integrated Tariff of the Community (Tarif Intégré de la Communauté, TARIC) is a database designed to show the various rules that apply to specific products being imported into the customs territory of the EU or, in some cases, exported from it. U.S. exporters should consult TARIC to identify various rules that apply to specific products being imported into the customs territory of the EU. The TARIC can be searched by country of origin, Harmonized System (HS) Code, and product description on the interactive website of the Directorate-General for Taxation and the Customs Union. The online TARIC is updated daily. The TARIC does not contain information relating to national levies such as Value Added Tax (VAT) rates.
Duties and other import taxes are levied on the customs value of the goods at the point of importation. The customs value is based on the transaction value of the goods imported. In practice, the C.I.F. (cost, insurance, freight) value is commonly used as the customs value. To assess customs value, the place of importation must be indicated. In the case of sea and air cargo, the place of importation is the unloading location. In surface transportation, it is the Customs Office at the frontier. The customs value is determined according to the General Agreement on Tariffs and trade (GATT) Valuation Agreement and the Community Customs Code (Council regulation 2913/92), and the Regulation Laying Down Provisions for Implementation of the Customs Code (Commission regulation 2454/93). Depending on the product and excluding foodstuffs, import tariffs range from 0-17 percent. Duties for non-EU countries are relatively low, especially for manufactured goods, ranging on average from 2.61 percent to 4.17 percent. However, textile and clothing items still have high duties and quotas.
Most goods imported to Finland are also subject to a value-added tax (VAT). The general VAT rate is 24 percent. However, certain categories, such as food and animal feeding stuff, are subject to a reduced VAT rate of 14%. Furthermore, pharmaceutical and medical products, works of art, and books are subject to a lower VAT rate of 10%.
Please consult Finnish Customs for further information.
To look up duties and tariffs use, use the Customs Info Database tariff look-up tool, available on trade.gov (free registration required), to estimate duties and taxes.