Import and Export Accounting and Tax in Iran: What Every Trader Should Track

Foreign trade creates two parallel records: one at customs and one at the tax administration, and each is routinely used to test the other. This note is for traders, manufacturers importing raw materials, and exporters who want to know what each document in the chain does to their tax position.

The document chain is where an audit starts

In the trade files I have handled, an assessor almost never begins with the journal. They begin with what the trade and customs platforms already show: who registered the order, what foreign currency was allocated, what value was cleared, and what exports were recorded under that national ID. Your books are then compared against that picture.

The practical consequence is that any link in the chain missing from your accounting reads as undeclared activity rather than a bookkeeping slip. Build one file per shipment holding the proforma invoice, order registration code, currency allocation documents, bill of lading and cargo insurance, the customs declaration with its cotage number, the green customs certificate, and — for exports — the export licence and evidence of currency repatriation.

Getting landed cost right

The most common accounting error in trading companies is booking the supplier invoice as cost of goods and pushing everything else into expenses. That understates closing inventory, distorts gross margin, and comes back as a departure from accounting standards during assessment.

VAT at the border

The VAT base on imports is the customs value plus import duties, so the amount customs calculates is nearly always higher than the supplier invoice. That gap is normal. The receipt and the declaration together support the credit you claim in your VAT return.

One pattern worth flagging: businesses that have not yet registered in the VAT system still pay this amount at the border but cannot recover it, so several percent is silently added to their cost base. If import volume matters to your model, delaying registration is an expensive choice.

Exports are zero-rated, not unconditionally exempt

People say exports are exempt; the law speaks of a zero rate, and the difference is not cosmetic. Under Article 141 of the Direct Taxes Act, income from exporting non-oil goods, agricultural products and services is zero-rated, with a narrower treatment for raw materials. But Article 146 bis makes that benefit conditional on filing the return and presenting books and documents on time.

I have seen what that condition means in practice: an exporter who filed a few days late had the whole year's export income assessed at the ordinary rate. An administrative delay wiped out the year's profit.

On the VAT side, exports through official channels are zero-rated and input tax on the related purchases can be refunded on presentation of the green customs certificate. Filing those certificates properly is the first condition of ever seeing that refund.

Currency differences

Your payable to a foreign supplier is a monetary item until settled, so it is retranslated at the balance sheet date. A rising rate produces a translation loss, a falling rate produces a gain you have not actually realised in cash. In import-heavy businesses this alone can separate book profit from real profit; I have set out a defensible method in the note on currency translation and phantom profit.

Recurring duties, in order

1. Report each import by cotage number and each export by licence number in the quarterly transaction report.
2. Issue domestic sales invoices for imported goods through the taxpayer system with the correct goods identifier.
3. Review payments to foreign legal entities for services or royalties against the withholding rules of Article 107.
4. File currency repatriation evidence inside the shipment file, not separately with bank paperwork.
5. Reconcile cleared customs value against recorded purchases monthly, and document any explained difference.

The trading card risk

Importing under someone else's commercial card remains common and remains costly. The tax file opens in the cardholder's name and the total cleared value becomes the starting point for estimating their income. Proving the real margin went elsewhere is a heavy burden that rarely resolves cleanly at the dispute boards. If importing is part of your business model, holding the card in your own company's name is the cheapest insurance available.

Frequent errors in trading files

• Recording the purchase on the date of the currency transfer rather than on transfer of ownership and clearance
• Leaving goods in transit parked in prepayments until they are sold
• Failing to explain differences between customs value and recorded purchase value
• Losing the green certificate and with it the export refund
• Not separating export from domestic sales in the chart of accounts, which makes the zero-rated share impossible to compute at year end

Key takeaways

• Customs and currency records give the tax administration a view of your business; your books must match it.
• Landed cost includes everything up to arrival in your warehouse, except VAT, which is a credit.
• The export benefit is a zero rate conditional on timely filing, not an automatic exemption.
• Separate export and domestic revenue in the chart of accounts from day one.
• Rates, thresholds and repatriation rules change; confirm the current circular before relying on any figure.