Is Air Freight Included in Import Agency Fee? 2026 Full-link Cost Accounting Standard for Customs Clearance at Shanghai Port

Air Freight Is Not Part of Import Agency Fee: Core Boundary Between the Two Types of Costs

In all import scenarios,air freight and import agency fee are two types of costs accounted for independently,with no inclusion relationship.Many importers are misled by bundled quotations,mistakenly believing that air freight is part of the agency fee,which eventually leads to overpayment,abnormal customs valuation and other problems.

In 2026,the customs valuation system of Shanghai Port has been directly connected to the tariff data of major global airlines.An air freight declaration error exceeding 5% will trigger manual valuation.Once it is determined that the air freight is deliberately under-declared,a valuation supplementary tax of at least 10% will be generated,and the enterprise credit rating will also be affected.

Common Causes of Confusion Between the Two Types of Costs and Risk Avoidance Cases

More than 90% of cost disputes come from the bundled quotation routines of unscrupulous freight forwarders.Many freight forwarders deliberately do not split cost details,mix air freight and agency fee together,either markup the price in air freight,or ask for additional agency fee in the later stage.

Mr.Wu,who imported laboratory instruments last month,fell into this trap: he imported 10 boxes of precision instruments from Frankfurt under EXW terms,the freight forwarder gave an all-in-one price quotation of 120,000 yuan,marked as "full package",Mr.Wu thought it included air freight and agency fee.But after the cargo arrived at the port,the freight forwarder asked for an additional 20,000 yuan of agency fee,otherwise the bill would not be released.Mr.Wu contacted Zhongshitong for intervention and verification,and found that the air freight quoted by the freight forwarder was 32% higher than the official tariff of the airline in the same period,which was equivalent to secretly adding the agency fee to the air freight and charging a second time extra.Finally,Zhongshitong coordinated with the port supervision department to complete the document correction,helped Mr.Wu recover the overpaid 38,000 yuan,the cargo was cleared and released from the area 2 days later than the scheduled time,and no late declaration surcharge was generated.

3 Compliance Red Lines for Cost Accounting

• Customs Valuation Red Line: Air freight must be declared separately with the official airline waybill,and shall not be combined with the agency fee into the dutiable value.Otherwise,the dutiable value will be falsely high,and the maximum additional 20% customs duty and value-added tax will be paid.In 2026,the verification coverage rate of air freight declaration at Shanghai Port has reached 100%.
• Foreign Exchange Settlement Red Line: Air freight belongs to the category of overseas service trade foreign exchange payment,which needs to be paid to the overseas airline or overseas agent account.The agency fee belongs to domestic service trade,which is paid to the domestic agent account.Mixed payment of the two types of costs will trigger the penetrating verification of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange,and serious violators will be classified as Category B enterprises,with foreign exchange payment authority restricted.
• Tax Deduction Red Line: 9% input VAT of air freight (domestic section) is deductible,and 6% input VAT of agency fee is deductible.The two types of costs must be invoiced separately.The combined invoice cannot be deducted normally,which will cause direct loss of the corresponding tax amount.

Practical Guidelines for Import Cost Accounting in 2026

Before signing the import agency agreement,the agency must be required to split and list all cost details,do not accept any vague quotations marked as "all-in-one price" or "package price".The air freight part must be noted as "reimbursed at cost according to the official airline waybill",and the agency fee part must be marked with a fixed amount,with no floating clause set.

Relying on the resources of direct signing with global airlines at its Shanghai headquarters,Zhongshitong can provide real-time first-hand air freight quotations for all routes,100% transparent of all cost details with no hidden charges.It also supports off-site import declaration at all ports across China,and provides full-link services including door-to-door pickup,air freight booking,customs clearance and distribution in 120 countries around the world.

Finally,two practical risk avoidance suggestions are put forward: First,the air freight of Europe and US routes in the peak season (November to December) and Middle East routes around Ramadan in 2026 may increase by more than 30%.When signing the agreement,the floating threshold of air freight price shall be agreed,and the part exceeding the threshold shall be borne by both parties through negotiation to avoid temporary price increase.Second,for imported goods under EXW terms,the overseas pickup fee and local transportation fee are subsidiary costs of air freight,not part of import agency fee,so do not be repeatedly charged by the agency.