Johannesburg – If you’ve a South African who has ever bought from Temu and watched your heart sink when a courier link landed in your inbox demanding extra money before releasing your parcel, those days are over.
The Chinese online marketplace now includes Value-Added Tax (VAT) and import duties directly at checkout – so the price you see is finally the price you pay.
Forget those ballooned surprise charges and frantic searches to verify the ever shady “pay now” emails.
The old system frustrated shoppers and created dangerous loopholes. South Africans would browse Temu’s famously low prices, add items to their cart at acheckout thinking they’d scored an unbeatable deal. Then acourier message would land days later: pay import VAT, sometimes customs duties, plus a release fee – often adding 30% or more to the original bill.
Fraudsters also flooded the market with fake “your parcel is held” SMSes and emails, preying on confused shoppers who couldn’t tell legitimate requests from scams.
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What’s actually changed?
Under the new system, Temu calculates the 15% import VAT – plus any applicable customs duties – at the point of sale. You pay one amount. Temu handles the rest, including customs clearance. Your parcel arrives without the annoying hostage-negotiation-style emails.
The technical side works like this: South African Revenue Service (SARS) calculates import VAT on the Added Tax Value (ATV). For most goods shipped from outside the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu), the ATV includes your customs (CIF – cost, insurance, freight) value, plus 10% of that value, plus any customs duty. Temu now factors all of this into your cart total.
If you return an item, Temu also refunds the tax portion along with the purchase price, adding a layer of protection shoppers didn’t previously have.
As Temu authorities clamp down, compliance becomes king
SARS has tightened import rules across the board, pushing international platforms toward compliance to protect local retailers who cannot dodge tax obligations. As Temu authorities clamp down on grey-zone imports, this move was inevitable.
As for the sheer demand for in-person shopping beauty events like the eve-popular Takealot’s pop-up beauty experience – which has sold out consecutively and rotates between major cities – that simply shows how fiercely South Africans support local retail when the experience feels right. The already sold-out next edition at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in Johannesburg from April 24 to 26 proves that local players aren’t just surviving; they thrive on scarcity, buzz, and genuine connection.
Worried that the old import VAT chaos will still catch you off guard?
Tax experts say those days are over. Temu now does what responsible global platforms should do: collects taxes at source. That makes the system cleaner, safer, and fairer to local businesses who’ve always charged VAT upfront.
What South African shoppers can expect now
Slightly higher displayed prices – Don’t panic when that R50 gadget now shows R65 or R70. That’s the tax-inclusive real price.
No more courier demand emails – If anyone emails you asking for “release fees” or “outstanding duties” on a Temu order after you’ve paid at checkout, treat it as a scam.
Faster delivery – Because Temu pre-pays customs clearance, your parcel spends less time stuck at the border.
A level playing field for local shops – Local retailers have long argued that Temu’s “no tax at checkout” model gave the platform an unfair advantage. Now that advantage has disappeared. Competition shifts back to product quality, delivery speed, and after-sales service.
Industry analysts note that shoppers will see higher sticker prices – that’s inevitable. But higher upfront always beats lower upfront followed by a surprise bill. The psychology of shopping changes completely when you know the total from the start. This actually builds trust, and trust costs the most in e-commerce.
How to pay custom duty in South Africa? You don’t anymore.
If you’re still wondering how to pay custom duty in South Africa under the old system – the answer is simple. You don’t.
Temu handles it upfront. The days of visiting the post office, tracking down customs forms, or clicking sketchy courier payment links have ended for Temu shoppers.
You still need to do the maths, though. Just because Temu now shows duties and VAT doesn’t automatically mean it’s cheaper than buying locally.
Use SARS’s import duty calculator for high-value items:
Compare Temu’s final checkout total against a local price you’ve seen (which already includes VAT). Sometimes local wins. Sometimes Temu still wins. The difference now? You can actually tell before you pay.
So don’t panic when you see the higher number at checkout. That higher number is the real number. And finally knowing the real number before you click buy – that’s not a drawback. That’s the upgrade.
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