Duty & GST on clothing
🇮🇩→🇸🇬 Cross-borderImport duty and GST on clothing into Singapore
Clothing pays no import duty in Singapore. It pays 9% GST, charged on the CIF value — your goods plus freight plus insurance, not your invoice alone. The cost founders miss is not duty; it is GST on a bigger number than they expected.
What this guide covers
- →Why there is no tariff on garments
- →What GST is actually charged on, with a worked example
- →Who the importer of record must be
- →Whether you can reclaim the GST
- →The separate rule for direct-to-consumer orders
Clothing pays no import duty in Singapore. It pays 9% GST, charged on the CIF value — your goods plus freight plus insurance, not your invoice alone. Only liquor, tobacco, motor vehicles and petroleum are dutiable, and apparel is on none of those lists. The cost founders miss is not duty; it is GST on a number bigger than the one on their invoice.
- No duty on garments, bags, footwear or accessories. There is no tariff to look up.
- GST is 9% of the customs value, and customs value is CIF, not FOB.
- The importer must hold a Singapore UEN and an activated Customs account.
- You only reclaim that GST if you are GST-registered, which is compulsory above S$1m turnover.
- Goods sold direct to consumers at S$400 or below follow a different rule entirely.
There is no duty, and that surprises people
Singapore levies customs or excise duty on exactly four categories: intoxicating liquors, tobacco products, motor vehicles, and petroleum products and biodiesel blends. Clothing is not among them, and neither is anything else a fashion brand sells.
This is genuinely different from most markets Indonesian brands have exported to, and it removes a whole planning exercise. There is no tariff schedule to hunt through and no duty line in your landed cost.
You still need the HS code. Duty-free is not declaration-free — apparel classifies under HS Chapters 61 (knitted) and 62 (not knitted), and your declaration needs the right 8-digit code even though the duty rate against it is nil. Singapore Customs runs a classification search, and will issue an official ruling on a product for a fee if a code is genuinely ambiguous.
What GST is actually charged on
9% of the customs value — and customs value is CIF: the price of the goods, plus freight, plus insurance to Singapore.
That is the part that catches people out. A brand budgets 9% of its invoice value and is then billed 9% of a larger number, because the freight rode along into the base.
| Line | Example |
|---|---|
| Goods value (FOB) | S$4,000 |
| Freight and insurance to Singapore | S$400 |
| Customs value (CIF) | S$4,400 |
| Import duty on apparel | S$0 |
| GST at 9% | S$396 |
On a small first consignment, where freight is proportionally at its most expensive, that gap between 9% of goods and 9% of CIF is meaningful. Budget from CIF.
There is a second wrinkle worth knowing: if the goods are sold on before they arrive, GST is charged on the last selling price rather than your original invoice. That matters if you are selling to a Singapore stockist who imports them.
Who the importer is, and why it is an entity question
The importer of record must hold a Singapore Unique Entity Number and an activated Customs account, and must obtain a permit through TradeNet before the goods arrive. That is the requirement that turns shipping into a company question.
The importer is whoever brings the goods in — commonly the local party named as consignee on the commercial invoice, even when an overseas company sold them. So there are three realistic arrangements:
| Who imports | When it fits |
|---|---|
| Your Singapore stockist | Outright wholesale — they own the goods on arrival |
| A partner acting as importer for you | Consignment, pop-ups, testing without your own entity |
| Your own Singapore entity | Once you are the seller of record here |
Settle this before anything ships. A consignment arriving with no agreed importer of record is the classic way a first shipment sits at the border while two parties work out whose problem it is.
Detail: do you need a Singapore company?
Can you get the GST back?
Only if you are GST-registered in Singapore. Registration is compulsory once taxable turnover passes S$1 million, and voluntary below it. Most brands entering the market are well under that line.
So for a first year, import GST is usually a straight cost rather than something you reclaim. Price it into your landed cost rather than treating it as recoverable.
This is one of the quiet arguments for a local entity later. Past the registration threshold the 9% stops being a cost and becomes a timing difference, which changes your margin on every shipment. It is rarely the reason to incorporate on its own; it is often the thing that tips a decision already half-made.
If you are holding stock rather than selling it straight through, there is a scheme that suspends import GST until goods actually leave the warehouse — see holding stock in Singapore vs shipping each order.
The separate rule for direct-to-consumer orders
Goods valued at S$400 or below, sold to Singapore consumers and shipped in, are taxed differently. Since 1 January 2023 these low-value goods carry GST, collected by the overseas vendor at the point of sale where that vendor is registered under Singapore's overseas vendor regime, rather than at the border.
Practically: if you ship single orders from your own webstore, this is your rule. If you send a wholesale consignment to a stockist, it is not — that is an ordinary import and the CIF calculation above applies.
Mixing the two up produces either double-charged customers or an unexpected bill, so be clear which of the two businesses a given shipment belongs to.
FAQ
Is there really no tariff on clothing? Correct. Singapore Customs lists four dutiable categories and apparel is not one of them.
Do I need a permit even though there is no duty? Yes. A customs permit is required to account for the import and any tax payable, duty-free or not, and it must be obtained before the goods arrive.
Does an ASEAN certificate of origin help? It is what you would use to claim preferential duty — and with no duty on apparel, there is nothing to reduce. Keep the paperwork consistent, but it will not save you money here.
What about samples I carry in my suitcase? Small quantities of personal or sample goods are a different situation from a commercial consignment, and the value thresholds and relief rules are their own topic. Do not assume a suitcase is exempt because it is small.
Are cosmetics treated the same on duty? On duty, yes — also nil. Everything else about cosmetics differs, because they need a notification and a Responsible Person before they can be supplied at all. See the Responsible Person rule.
Who pays the GST, me or my stockist? Whoever is the importer of record. That is exactly why it needs agreeing in writing before the shipment moves.
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Sources: Singapore Customs — list of dutiable goods; Goods and Services Tax on imports (customs value, CIF basis, last selling price); import procedures and importer registration; HS classification. IRAS — current GST rate, GST registration threshold, GST on imported low-value goods from 1 Jan 2023. Figures in the worked example are illustrative. Updated August 2026. Operational guidance, not legal advice.