Import duty and GST on jewellery in Australia: what you pay above AUD 1,000

Do you pay GST and duty on a ring shipped from overseas?

Yes, but which rule applies depends on the order’s value. It makes no difference whether the piece is a ring, a pendant or a loose stone. At or under AUD 1,000, a GST-registered overseas seller usually adds 10% GST at checkout, and no customs duty applies. Above AUD 1,000 (where most custom pieces in gold with diamonds sit), Australian Border Force (ABF) assesses GST, customs duty and clearance charges at the border instead, before the parcel is released.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) sets that AUD 1,000 line for what it calls “low value imported goods,” and its own worked example is a jewellery seller: a UK necklace retailer ships two AUD 750 necklaces in one parcel, and because the parcel’s combined customs value is AUD 1,400, the necklaces don’t count as low value goods: the seller charges no GST at checkout, and the goods are taxed at the border instead (ATO, checked 22 September 2026). A single custom ring or pendant priced above AUD 1,000 works the same way.

That split is why the rest of this page is about the over-AUD-1,000 case: it’s the one that applies to a made-to-order 18ct gold (18K, or 750) piece set with a laboratory-grown diamond, and it’s the one with the most moving parts.

What Australian Border Force actually charges above AUD 1,000

Four separate charges can land on a parcel worth more than AUD 1,000: customs duty, GST, an Import Processing Charge (IPC) and a biosecurity cost recovery charge. ABF assesses all four when the Full Import Declaration is lodged. None of them is optional, and ABF doesn’t collect any of them through the seller’s checkout. A seller can still include them in the price and pay them on the buyer’s behalf through the carrier, which is what we do (more on that below).

For a piece valued over AUD 1,000 and under AUD 10,000, sent by air with an electronic declaration, the IPC and the biosecurity charge together come to AUD 98, before any duty or GST (ABF, checked 22 September 2026). Duty, GST and whatever a broker or courier charges for its own clearance service all sit on top of that figure, and ABF doesn’t set or publish the broker fee.

Is there import duty on gold jewellery from China, and does a free trade agreement remove it?

Gold jewellery is classified under tariff code 7113.19.00, and the general rate of duty is 5% of the customs value. The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) can bring that down to 0%, but only when the shipment carries proof of origin. It isn’t automatic just because the workshop is in Shenzhen.

The mechanism is ABF’s Schedule 12, which covers Chinese-originating goods: every tariff line is Free unless it appears on a short exceptions list of alcohol, tobacco and a handful of chemical and fuel lines. Chapter 71, which includes jewellery, isn’t on that list, so the ChAFTA rate for 7113.19.00 is Free (ABF, checked 22 September 2026). One correction matters here, because it trips up a lot of DIY research: the “CA” column printed next to the 5% general rate on ABF’s ordinary Schedule 3 page is not China. CA stands for Canada, under the 1960 Canada-Australia Trade Agreement — an unrelated preference for goods made in Canada (ABF, checked 22 September 2026). The Chinese rate lives in Schedule 12, not in that column.

Proof of origin is a Certificate of Origin that the exporter obtains from an authorised body in China: the General Administration of Customs of China or the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (DFAT, checked 22 September 2026). A Declaration of Origin, self-completed by the exporter, is a treaty alternative, but only for an exporter that already holds an ABF advance ruling on its ChAFTA origin, so it isn’t available to every exporter. Without it at the border, the general 5% applies; a broker can say whether a refund is possible if a valid certificate arrives later. A customs broker confirms the exact rate for any specific parcel.

A worked example: an AUD 3,000 ring, two ways

Take an 18ct gold ring with a laboratory-grown diamond, customs value AUD 3,000, shipped by air with an electronic declaration. Freight for the parcel is assumed at AUD 60 here, a placeholder to show how the arithmetic works; your own courier or broker will show the real figure for your shipment.

The gap between the two columns is AUD 165: the AUD 150 duty itself, plus the 10% GST that would otherwise apply to that duty, since duty is part of the GST base. Freight and any broker or courier service fee sit outside this total. They are real costs, but ABF doesn’t set them.

Who pays the charges, and when

The importer does. On a standard delivery where the seller hasn’t separately taken on that role, the buyer is the “owner” of the goods for customs purposes, and the one who owes duty, GST, the IPC and the biosecurity charge before ABF releases the parcel (ATO, checked 22 September 2026). In practice, the courier or a licensed customs broker usually lodges the declaration and pays ABF on the importer’s behalf, then bills the importer for those charges plus its own fee. The seller can also arrange for the courier to bill those charges to the seller instead, so the buyer stays the importer but has nothing to pay on delivery.

A private buyer can’t claim any of this GST back — it simply adds to the cost of the piece. A GST-registered Australian business importing the same piece can claim a GST credit for the GST paid on import, the same way it would for any other business purchase (ATO, checked 22 September 2026).

Can you legally reduce or avoid these charges?

Splitting one order into several parcels to keep each one under AUD 1,000 is a common idea, and not a reliable one. Industry customs-clearance guidance describes ABF treating multiple consignments as a single import for valuation when the sender, the consignee, the timing or the similarity of the goods show they were really one commercial transaction — which a single custom ring, shipped once, plainly is.

Understating the value on the customs paperwork to shrink the duty or GST bill is a customs offence. ABF assesses duty and GST against the declared value on the paperwork itself, regardless of what price the two sides privately agreed.

How ENBOM DIAMONDS handles this for your order

Import duties, GST and clearance charges are included in the price you’re quoted for delivery to Australia, so you pay nothing when the piece arrives. You remain the importer for customs purposes; we pay those charges on your behalf through the carrier, and the parcel is released to you without a bill. Everything above about rates, the AUD 1,000 line and ChAFTA explains how the system works; with us, it is already covered by the price. If a particular shipment can’t be sent this way, your order page will say so before you pay.

Delivery to Australia is included in the price as well, and while the piece is in transit, we carry the risk of loss or damage until the piece is delivered, and remake or refund in full if it is lost or damaged.

How long the whole order takes is covered in how long a custom engagement ring takes.

Five questions to ask any overseas jeweller before you pay

Whoever you buy from, ask these before the invoice, not after:

• Are import duties, GST and clearance charges included in the price, or will I be billed for them on delivery?
• What customs value will actually appear on the shipping documents?
• Will you provide a Certificate of Origin, so the piece can be assessed at the ChAFTA rate instead of the general 5%?
• Is delivery to Australia included in the price, or billed separately?
• Who carries the risk if the piece is lost or damaged before it reaches me?

The rest of the checklist, from the model to the stone’s report, is in ordering a custom ring online.

Where this page will not help you

This is a plain-English guide to a public tariff and tax system, checked against ABF and ATO sources on the dates shown — not tax, customs or legal advice for your specific shipment. Rates, thresholds and charges are set by the Australian government and do change; re-check the dates above before you rely on a figure. Importing for resale or business use runs under different GST and duty rules than a private buyer bringing in one piece for themselves, and this page doesn’t cover that case. A loose, unmounted stone shipped separately from its setting is also a different import, under a different tariff code, from the finished piece this page is about. If that’s your situation, ask a broker to classify the stone itself rather than assuming a finished-jewellery rate applies. For the other half of a jewellery decision, how the stone itself gets graded, see our guide to IGI and GIA reports.