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Customs · Duty · VAT
Who clears the goods, and who pays the tax.
DDP tells you the seller pays duty. It does not tell you whose name the entry sits in — and that single line decides whether you can ever reclaim the VAT. This page is about that line.
- Entry filed by
- Our own broker
- Importer of record
- DDP Europe
- Duty
- By HS code
- Import VAT
- By member state
- EORI needed
- Only if you file
Three roles
Three parties, three different liabilities.
Most confusion about DDP comes from collapsing these three into one. They are separate, and each one answers a different question when something goes wrong.
| Role | Who | What they carry |
|---|---|---|
| Exporter | Us, at origin | The China export declaration, the origin-side paperwork, and the accuracy of what is declared about the goods. |
| Importer of record | Us, by default | The EU import entry, the duty, and the import VAT. Legally the importer — which is why the VAT is ours to settle and not yours to reclaim. |
| Carrier | Airline or road operator | Physical movement between the two customs territories, and the transit documents that go with it. |
Whoever is importer of record owns the VAT treatment. Change that one line and you change who can reclaim the tax, who appears on the entry, and — in some member states — whether a fiscal representative is required at all.
Who actually clears
The clearance is ours, not a partner’s.
We clear EU imports through our own customs broker in Europe, filing in our own name as importer of record. That is not how most DDP quotes are assembled. The usual chain is an overseas agent, a broker they subcontract, and a delivery company subcontracted by the broker — three companies, two handovers, and one place for a question to get stuck.
Two things change when the clearance is in-house, and both are visible from your side:
- A query is answered by the people who filed the entry, usually the same day. Nobody has to ask another company what the customs authority meant.
- A consignment selected for examination is moved by us, at a facility we deal with directly, rather than by whoever happens to hold the file that week.
It does not mean clearance always takes a day. If customs selects a consignment for physical examination, no amount of in-house capability changes the queue at the facility. What it changes is who is standing in that queue on your behalf.
Duty
Duty is a classification question, not a negotiation.
Duty is set by the HS code and the customs value. Nothing about the freight rate changes it — which is why a quote that hides duty inside a kilo rate is impossible to check.
The customs value is normally the transaction value: what you actually paid for the goods. The HS code then sets the rate. Across the consumer goods we move, most lines sit somewhere between zero and twelve per cent, with textiles, footwear and some finished assemblies at the higher end and electronics often near the bottom.
A worked example, because the arithmetic is where quotes get fudged. Goods valued at €10,000, duty at 6.5%: that is €650. Import VAT at the German rate of 19% is then charged on the customs value plus the duty — around €2,024 rather than €1,900, because the duty itself is taxable. Two small numbers, and together they are a fifth of the consignment value.
An entry is a legal determination, not a formality. If the code changes when customs looks at the goods, the duty changes with it. We raise that with you before the shipment moves — we do not absorb the difference quietly, and we do not send a supplementary invoice a month later.
Import VAT
The same goods, six different percentages.
| Destination | Standard rate | On €10,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 19% | €1,900 |
| France | 20% | €2,000 |
| Netherlands | 21% | €2,100 |
| Spain | 21% | €2,100 |
| Italy | 22% | €2,200 |
| Poland | 23% | €2,300 |
Figures exclude duty, which is added to the VAT base. Rates are the standard rates in force at the time of writing; reduced rates exist for some product categories and we check the applicable one when quoting.
For a VAT-registered business buying on normal terms, import VAT is a cash-flow item, not a cost — it is reclaimed. Under a DDP arrangement where we are importer of record, that reclaim is not available to you, which is why we treat it as a genuine price difference rather than a technicality.
IOSS
IOSS probably does not apply to you.
It is the most over-applied acronym in European e-commerce, so it is worth two minutes.
What IOSS is for
A scheme for business-to-consumer consignments with an intrinsic value at or below €150, sold to a private individual in the EU. It lets the seller collect VAT at checkout and declare it once, instead of the parcel being stopped at the border.
Why it is not your lane
Business-to-business imports do not use IOSS, and neither do consignments above the threshold. If you are shipping to a company address, or to a fulfilment centre, an ordinary import entry is the correct route — and that is what a DDP service files.
That is a different product with a different compliance chain, and it is not what this site sells. We would rather say so than take the booking and discover it at the border.
EORI
You need an EORI number only if you file.
Which you do not, by default. The requirement attaches to the declarant, not to the buyer or the owner of the goods.
There is one situation where we will ask you to hold one: if your company is VAT-registered in the EU and wants the entry in its own name so the import VAT can be reclaimed. That is a legitimate and often sensible choice at volume — it is just a different setup, quoted VAT-exclusive rather than inclusive.
Everything about that decision, including the cash-flow arithmetic, is on its own page.
Paperwork
What you get back after the entry.
The entry
The import declaration as accepted by the customs authority, showing the goods, the code and the value it was assessed on. This is the document that proves the shipment was declared.
Duty and VAT statement
The amounts settled and the basis for them. Your accountant will ask for exactly this when they see freight and duty on the same invoice.
Proof of delivery
Signed POD with the date and the receiving location, so the file closes cleanly on both sides.
If a document in your company’s name is what your accountant needs in order to reclaim, the entry has to be in your name — and then it is your EORI on the declaration. There is no way to have both the forwarder’s entry and your reclaim.
Questions
Four things people ask about clearance.
Is duty included in a DDP price?
Yes — but check whether the quote shows it as its own line. A single kilo rate that silently swallows duty leaves you unable to tell whether the number is competitive or whether the duty estimate was optimistic.
Can I reclaim the import VAT?
Only if the entry is in your name. When we file as importer of record, the VAT is settled under our VAT position, so there is nothing for your accountant to reclaim. Tell us before we quote if you need it the other way round.
What is an EORI number?
The trader identifier the EU issues to anyone who files import or export declarations. One registration works across all member states. You need one to be the declarant — not to be the buyer.
Who is the importer of record on your shipments?
We are, by default. That is what makes the service DDP in practice rather than only on paper: the entry, the duty and the import VAT are all ours to file and settle, and the goods arrive as your property.