Haitian Customs Charges, Explained in Plain Words
The shipping price gets your barrel, box or car onto a boat. Customs is what Haiti charges when it arrives — and it is the part nobody can quote you exactly in advance, because customs assesses each shipment itself. What can be explained, plainly, is how the documented charges are built, so you can budget honestly and spot a made-up number when someone throws one at you.
The documented stack has three general charges that apply across shipments: a verification fee of 5%, the TCA — a turnover tax — of 10%, and a CFGDCT contribution of 2%. Vehicles carry more on top: documented duties of 5–20% on vehicles, plus a 10% tourist tax on used vehicles. Everything below explains what each of those words means, what they are charged on, and why the honest answer always ends with the same sentence: the port and customs have the final word.
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What are the documented customs charges in Haiti?
| Charge | Documented rate | In plain words |
|---|---|---|
| Verification fee | 5% | The charge for customs checking and verifying your shipment and its papers. |
| TCA (turnover tax) | 10% | A tax applied to goods entering the country, charged on the value customs works with. |
| CFGDCT contribution | 2% | A contribution collected alongside the other charges. |
| Vehicle duties | 5–20% | Duties that apply to vehicles, within this documented range. |
| Tourist tax on used vehicles | 10% | An extra documented charge that applies to used vehicles. |
These are documented charges — the ones written in the rules that describe how Haitian customs builds a bill. They are not a promise that your bill will be one tidy total. Customs decides the value it assesses, which charges apply to your goods, and the final amount. Anyone who gives you an exact customs total for a shipment customs has not seen yet is guessing, or worse.
What are the charges worked out on?
In plain terms: on the value of what you are bringing in, as customs assesses it. That is why the list of what is inside your barrel or box matters, and why a car is treated differently from a barrel of clothes and food. A vehicle has an assessed value of its own, which is why vehicle duties and the used-vehicle tourist tax exist as a separate layer on top of the general charges.
Keep your paperwork honest and complete. If customs opens a barrel and finds things that were never declared, the conversation changes — charges can grow, and clearing can take longer. Our guide to the documents you need to ship to Haiti covers the list and the papers that make this part go smoothly.
There is no honest way to turn these charges into one exact number before customs sees your shipment. Budget with the stack in mind, keep a margin, and treat any exact “customs calculator” number with suspicion.
Who pays the customs charges — you or your family in Haiti?
Normally, customs charges are paid in Haiti when the shipment is cleared, by the person receiving it — unless your shipping arrangement says otherwise. Some companies offer clearing help on the Haiti side; others hand your family the papers and the port does the rest. Ask before you ship, in plain questions: who clears my shipment in Haiti, what do they charge for that work, and what will my family still need to pay at the port?
Companies that handle containers and clearing questions every week include Interworld Freight and Latin American Cargo on the container side, and MK Cargo Shipping for barrels, boxes, containers and vehicles from the New York area. Compare them through the South Florida and New York & New Jersey corridor pages, and read the vehicle-specific walkthrough in clearing a car through customs in Haiti if a car is involved.
How do you protect yourself from a made-up customs bill?
- Ask what the charge is called. Real charges have names — verification fee, TCA, CFGDCT, vehicle duty, tourist tax. A demand with no name is a demand to question.
- Ask for the paper. Customs charges come with documents; keep every receipt your family receives.
- Agree the plan before shipping: who clears, who pays, and roughly what stack of charges to expect.
- Send your family the money for clearing before the shipment lands, so nothing sits at the port gathering storage charges while money travels.
If someone in the process invents a charge that is not in the documented stack, slow everything down and ask for it in writing. And if you are shipping a car, read the car guides before you pay anyone: how much it costs to ship a car to Haiti covers the full picture, boat plus customs. Short answers to the most common customs questions are also on the frequently asked questions page.