Tax Compliance Checks

When you upload an invoice, CargoLint checks whether the tax picture on the document makes sense for the shipment: whether a tax line should be there at all, whether the amount is plausible for the destination, and who actually owes tax at the border. The checks are deliberately advisory - CargoLint flags what looks wrong and explains why, rather than presenting computed amounts as fact.

What gets checked

Domestic invoices - is tax present? If origin and destination are the same country and that country levies a national VAT or GST, CargoLint expects a tax line. A missing one is flagged as a warning - it could be a legitimate B2B reverse-charge invoice or a calculation gap, so the reviewer confirms. Countries with subnational tax regimes (like US sales tax) are excluded, because the right rate depends on the buyer’s state, not the invoice alone.

Domestic invoices - is the rate plausible? When a tax line is present, CargoLint compares the effective rate against the destination country’s standard rate. More than 15% above standard is flagged as a warning - usually surcharges, compounding, or a calculation error. More than 50% below standard is flagged as a note - often a legitimate reduced rate (food, books, medicines) or a reverse charge, raised for verification rather than as an error.

International invoices - who pays at the border? For cross-border shipments with an Incoterm, CargoLint reads who bears the import charges:

• DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) - the seller settles import duties and taxes with customs directly, so nothing is expected on the invoice tax line. CargoLint states this as an informational note.
• Buyer-pays terms (EXW, FOB, CIF, and others) - the buyer settles import charges at the border, separately from the invoice. If the invoice nonetheless carries a tax line, that’s flagged: exports from VAT jurisdictions are normally zero-rated, so a non-zero VAT line on an export invoice points at a seller-side issue (failed proof of export, lost zero-rating eligibility, or tax charged in error). Each flag explains what was expected, what was found, why it matters, and what to verify.

Customs unions and trade blocs

CargoLint recognizes five customs unions - the EU, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Southern African Customs Union, and Mercosur. Shipments between members move duty-free within the bloc, so border-tax expectations don’t apply; for intra-EU B2B trade, CargoLint also accounts for reverse-charge VAT.

Tax hints

When a check can’t run because a field is missing or ambiguous - no Incoterm recorded, no destination country - the finding includes a tax hint: a one-click prompt that takes you to the relevant field so you can supply the value, instead of CargoLint guessing. Once the field is filled in, the check re-evaluates.

Reference data

CargoLint maintains standard VAT and GST rates for 71 countries, each with the local tax name (USt in Germany, BTW/TVA in Belgium, GST in Australia). Rates are sourced from the OECD, the European Commission, and national tax authorities, and the rate file carries metadata with its last update and next scheduled review date.

What CargoLint deliberately does not do

CargoLint does not calculate customs duty amounts or import tax liabilities. Duty depends on the full 6-10 digit classification, trade agreements, preferential tariffs, anti-dumping measures, and quota status - chapter-level averages can’t be defended at the per-shipment level, so we don’t present them as numbers. Where duty matters to a finding, CargoLint gives guidance and tells you what to verify rather than printing an estimate that looks more precise than it is.

Important: All tax findings are advisory. They tell you what to verify before filing - they are not tax advice or an official assessment. Confirm liabilities with the destination country’s customs authority or a qualified professional.

What you see in the app

Tax findings appear in the Document Issues panel alongside other compliance checks. Each finding shows a severity (warning or note), a plain-language message, and - for discrepancies - a structured breakdown: what was expected, what’s on the invoice, why this matters, and a short list of things to verify. Applicable tax hints render as one-click prompts beneath the finding.

What’s next

• How confidence scoring works - understand how extraction certainty interacts with compliance checks
• Reviewing documents - how to handle flagged tax issues during review
• Working with HS codes - classification, which drives duty conversations with your broker