Customs duty and VAT on imports into Oman, worked out step by step

Before you agree a price with a supplier, you need to know what the goods will cost once they are cleared in Oman. On a normal import, customs collects two amounts on the declaration: customs duty, and value added tax on the import. This guide works through one example, then covers what changes the answer and how to check your own goods on the customs website before you buy. We file import declarations in Bayan for our customers, so the steps follow the order the figures appear in there. The customs and Tax Authority pages are the final word wherever they differ from anything here.

Three facts you need first

1. The tariff code. Oman's tariff uses 12-digit codes, and the duty rate belongs to the code. Our guide to HS codes in Oman shows how to find yours.
2. The value, brought to CIF. Customs assesses on the transaction value, the price actually paid or payable, on a CIF basis: the goods plus insurance and freight to Oman. If you bought FOB or ex works, the freight and insurance are added. Samples and free of charge goods still carry a value. The customs duty calculator asks for exactly this figure, the CIF value in the invoice currency, and shows the exchange rate it uses to turn it into Omani rials.
3. The origin. It decides whether a preferential rate under a trade agreement can apply.

The rate on the line

Most lines in Oman's 2025 tariff carry customs duty of 5%. A smaller group carries 0%, and portable computers are among them. Lines for alcoholic drinks, tobacco products and pork products carry 100%. Some lines have no rate at all, because the goods are prohibited. The rate follows the code, so two products that look alike to a buyer can pay different duty.

VAT on the import

VAT on imports is 5%. The VAT law sets the base: the customs value under the Common Customs Law, plus any taxes or other charges due on the import. So VAT is charged on the value with the duty already added, not on the value alone. Customs collects it with the duty through Bayan, and it falls due at the same time as the duty. Where no duty is due, it falls due when the duty would have been.

Goods whose supply in Oman is exempt from VAT or zero-rated, such as the food items on the Tax Authority's zero-rate list, are exempt or zero-rated on import too. Check your goods against those lists before you budget.

A worked example

This is an example only, with round numbers, not a real shipment. A company imports goods classified on a 5% line, with a CIF value of 10,000 OMR.

1. Customs duty: 5% of 10,000 OMR is 500 OMR.
2. VAT base: 10,000 OMR plus the 500 OMR of duty is 10,500 OMR.
3. VAT: 5% of 10,500 OMR is 525 OMR.
4. Duty and VAT together: 1,025 OMR, paid through Bayan before the goods are released.

The same 10,000 OMR of goods on a 0% line, such as laptops, pays no duty and 500 OMR of VAT. On a 100% line the duty alone equals the CIF value: 10,000 OMR.

Customs also charges a fee on each declaration, lower when the goods belong to a private individual than when they belong to a company. The current amounts are on the customs service pages. The law adds any other taxes or charges due on the import to the VAT base as well, so the figure Bayan calculates on your declaration is the one that counts.

Paying, and putting VAT off to the return

Duty and VAT are paid on the declaration through a payment ticket in Bayan, and our Bayan guide shows how a ticket is created. Release follows once the assessment is settled and paid.

A VAT-registered importer can ask the Tax Authority to defer the VAT on its imports to the VAT return for the period. The Tax Authority's imports guide sets the conditions: the importer is registered and compliant, the goods are for its business, and it applies one month before the goods enter, with any guarantee the Authority asks for. The Authority decides within 30 days, and a request with no reply counts as refused, so customs collects the VAT at import. This covers VAT only. The duty is still paid on the declaration.

Check your own goods before you buy

• The duty calculator. On the customs website, under business services, "Calculating Customs Duty Services" opens a form. Choose import, enter or search the code, then give the CIF value and its currency, the quantity and unit, the country of origin and, where one applies, a preferential tariff. The service calculates the duty in advance.
• Pre-import value disclosure. If you are not sure how customs will value the goods, customs offers a service, requested in Bayan before import, that settles the customs value of goods of a given code and origin before they arrive. Customs may ask for a sample, a catalogue or pictures.
• An advance ruling on the code or the origin, binding at every customs office, for goods you import repeatedly. The HS code guide covers the terms.

When the duty is lower, or comes back

A preferential rate, an industrial exemption and transit each depend on documents that exist before the goods arrive, and none of them applies backwards to an entry already released. A re-export refund is the one way back after release, within its deadlines.

• A preferential rate. Oman's tariff file has preferential columns for its agreements with the United States, Singapore and the EFTA states, and the calculator has a preferential tariff field. The goods have to meet the agreement's rules of origin.
• Industrial exemption. A company with an industrial licence can apply for exemption from duty on machines, equipment, spare parts, raw materials and packing materials for its production line. The application is made through Bayan and decided jointly by customs and two ministries.
• Re-export refunds. Duty paid on goods that are later re-exported can be refunded. The goods must be re-exported within a year of the import, the refund must be requested within six months of the re-export, and the goods must not be second-hand. Customs says the request is filed in Bayan by an authorised clearing agent.
• Transit. Goods that only cross Oman, for example landed at Sohar for a consignee in the UAE, can move in customs transit. No Omani duty is paid; customs holds a guarantee against it until the goods leave. Our page on UAE cargo through Sohar explains the choice between transit and entering the goods in Oman.

What raises the bill after you file

The example assumes customs accepts the code and the value as declared. When customs questions the value, for instance where buyer and seller are related or the price looks low for the goods, the importer must show what was paid, usually with the bank transfer or the letter of credit. When it questions the code, the rate can change with it. Either way the container waits at the terminal while the query is open, and our note on demurrage and detention explains the charges that keep running meanwhile.

How we help

We file the import declaration in Bayan for our import customers and answer the queries that follow it, on the same file as the shipment. Send the invoice, the packing list and the supplier's code when you book, and we will check the code and the CIF basis before the goods ship. We prepare the transit file for cargo that only crosses Oman, book the sea freight, and run land transport from the terminal to your premises. The clearance service itself is on customs clearance.

Get a rate: send the goods, the origin and the port, and when the cargo will be ready, and say if you only need the clearance.