Duty and VAT on a car imported into BiH: customs value and rates

Duty and VAT are charged on the customs value: the price you actually paid for the car, on an invoice or a sale contract, plus transport and insurance to the BiH border, converted at 1.95583 KM to the euro. Duty is 15% on a used petrol, diesel or hybrid car, 5% on a used fully electric one and 0% with proof of EU origin. VAT is 17% of the customs value plus the duty and the costs from the border to the first destination in BiH. If customs doubt your price, they must tell you why and let you reply before they set another value, and that value may never be a minimum or arbitrary one.

How the customs value is set

The customs value is the transaction value: the price actually paid or payable for the car, in whatever form it was paid, plus the costs of getting it to where it enters BiH, which, for a car coming by road, is the customs office at the border crossing (Customs Policy Law, Službeni glasnik BiH 58/15, articles 37 and 40; its implementing decision, Službeni glasnik BiH 13/19, article 93). A sale contract with a private seller can prove the price paid, as a dealer's invoice does; the Indirect Taxation Authority (UIO) itself describes buying a car from a private person under a sale contract.

The value is set when the customs declaration (JCI) is accepted, and euros are converted at the middle rate of the Central Bank of BiH, which on 23 September 2026 was 1.95583 KM to the euro (Customs Policy Law, article 43; Decision 13/19, articles 76 and 97).

What is added and what is left out

Added: transport, insurance, loading, unloading and handling up to the border, and any commission or brokerage you pay, except a fee to your own buying agent (Customs Policy Law, article 40).
Left out, if shown apart from the price: transport after the border, a fee to your own buying agent, and the duties and charges payable in BiH (article 41).
A transporter's price to your door is split by the distance driven outside and inside BiH, unless you prove what the leg to the border would cost under the general transport tariffs (Decision 13/19, article 94).
If the transport is free or you do it with your own means of transport, the cost to the border is added at the usual price for that kind of transport (article 94). No official text says how customs apply this to a car driven in on its own wheels, whether as fuel and tolls or otherwise.
The calculator adds the fuel for the whole drive and the tolls abroad, or the transporter's whole price, so it slightly overstates the duty (without proof of origin) and the VAT.
German VAT paid as a deposit is left out of the customs value if you show customs that it was or will be refunded (article 75); the export guide explains the deposit.

If customs doubt the price

It is for you to prove the price you paid (UIO's explanation of the customs value), so keep the contract or invoice, the proof of payment and your messages with the seller. If customs have reasonable doubt that the declared price is the whole amount paid, they may ask for more evidence; before deciding they must tell you the grounds, in writing if you ask, and give you reasonable time to reply, and the final decision, with reasons, is given in writing (Decision 13/19, article 102).

Only then may they use another method, strictly in order: the accepted value of an identical car, then of a similar one, the lowest counting; then resale prices in BiH or production cost; and last a fall-back method that may never use a minimum or arbitrary value or the price on the exporting country's own market (Customs Policy Law, articles 38 and 39; Decision 13/19, articles 79 and 80).

The price in a sale within the family (Decision 13/19, article 72) is not rejected for that alone: customs must examine whether the relationship affected the price and, if they think it did, tell you why and give you reasonable time to reply (Customs Policy Law, article 37). If you expect a different value, enter the difference in the calculator's valuation adjustment row, and both duty and VAT change with it.

What customs do in practice

UIO's internal guidelines of 20 May 2019, which are not among the regulations on UIO's website, set what officers do when the declared price departs from a catalogue value and when they ask for more documents, and say that identical or similar cars for comparison are taken from the 30 days before your import (state audit, December 2025). No official source names the catalogue used today. The method used is entered in box 43 of the JCI: code 1 means the value is the price you paid (transaction value), codes 2 to 6 that another method was used (Službeni glasnik BiH 9/23).

The December 2025 audit found that UIO had not proved that it applies the guidelines uniformly in practice, and that deviations occur especially in how transport costs are calculated and in the documents attached.

If you disagree with the value

A written decision against you must give its reasons and tell you how to appeal (Customs Policy Law, article 9), and you have 15 days from receiving it to appeal, through the body that made it (Law on Administrative Procedure, articles 218 and 221). The 2018 state audit describes the path: first the UIO regional centre, then the UIO main office, then an administrative dispute before the Court of BiH; the whole path takes about three years on average. Whether the 15 days also run from the record of the customs value (zapisnik) is not confirmed, so ask for a written decision.

An appeal does not stop payment (Customs Policy Law, articles 11 and 12); the BiH customs guide says when the car is released. Duty found not to be owed is refunded on a request made within three years of notification of the debt (Customs Policy Law, article 262); whether VAT follows the same deadline is not confirmed. Customs, too, can check the declaration after release and charge a difference within three years (articles 92 and 246).

Duty: 15%, 5% or 0%

Duty is a percentage of the customs value, under the 2026 tariff, which has applied since 1 January 2026 (Službeni glasnik BiH 80/25):

15% for a used petrol or diesel car and for a used hybrid, plug-in hybrids included;
5% for a used car with only an electric motor;
0% for a car of EU origin, with proof of origin: an EUR.1 or an origin declaration on the invoice; the EUR.1 guide explains which proof fits your seller and how to get it.

Neither engine size nor age changes the rate. The temporary duty cut for electric, hybrid and CNG/LPG cars imported until 31 December 2026 (Službeni glasnik BiH 22/26) is for new cars only. If customs doubt the proof of origin, they can release the car against a deposit for the duty, as the BiH customs guide explains.

VAT: 17%, and what it is charged on

Import VAT is 17% (VAT Law, Službeni glasnik BiH 9/05, article 23). It is charged on the customs value plus the duty and any other import charges, plus costs such as transport and insurance from the border to the first destination in BiH, the place named in the dispatch note or other document under which the car is imported (article 21). The customs agent (špediter) lists those costs on the PZT form, each with the number and date of its invoice and the name and ID number (JIB) of whoever provided the service (Službeni glasnik BiH 9/23). Whether your own fuel after the border, or the customs terminal fee, belongs in the base is not confirmed.

VAT is due even when the duty is 0%; only a relief removes it, such as those on moving, for an inherited car or for a disabled person (the rules guide covers the conditions). Cars carry no excise in BiH (Excise Law, Službeni glasnik BiH 49/09, article 4).

An example

A car bought from a German dealer for €10,000 without VAT and brought to the BiH border for €400, with no costs after the border, at 1.95583 KM to the euro:

customs value: €10,400, or 20,340.63 KM;
without proof of origin: duty of 15%, 3,051.09 KM, and VAT of 17% on 23,391.72 KM, 3,976.59 KM; 7,027.68 KM in all;
with proof of EU origin: no duty, and VAT of 3,457.91 KM.

The špediter, the customs terminal and homologation are paid on top.

Common mistakes

"The customs base is set from the customs catalogue, not solely from the invoice price." The law starts from the price actually paid; even in late 2017, under the old law, 87.5% of used cars were valued at the price paid (state audit, 2018).
"If the invoice looks low, customs charge the model's catalogue value on the BiH market." They must first give reasons and let you reply, then compare identical and similar cars; minimum and arbitrary values are banned.
"The VAT base is the customs value plus duty." It also includes transport and similar costs from the border to the first destination in BiH.
"Without EUR.1 the duty is up to 1%." Without proof of origin it is 15%, or 5% for a used fully electric car.
"Used cars also pay excise (trošarina)." The Excise Law lists no vehicle among excise goods.

This step of the import

Work out the whole cost

Sources

The official laws, decisions and pages this guide rests on, read on 23/09/2026. Rules and amounts change, so check the ones that matter to you before you buy.