SellerSays

DDP vs DAP: who pays the duties on your orders?

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid): you collect duties and taxes at checkout and the parcel arrives with nothing to pay. DAP (Delivered At Place): the buyer pays duties, taxes, and a carrier collection fee at the door. For consumer ecommerce, DDP wins on experience and refusal risk almost everywhere it's available; DAP survives mainly because it's the default and requires zero setup.

The real cost of 'the buyer pays'

DAP looks free to you, but the buyer pays the duty plus the carrier's collection fee, discovers it at delivery, and blames your store. Those fees are now precise, official numbers for US imports: UPS charges a disbursement fee of 2% of duty/tax with a $17.00 minimum (plus a $12 collect-on-delivery fee when collecting at the door), FedEx charges 2.5% with a $17.50 minimum, DHL Express charges 2% with a $17.50 minimum, and even postal delivery carries USPS's $9.35 customs clearance and delivery fee per dutiable item. On a $60 parcel owing $9 of duty, the buyer's doorstep surprise is $26+ — nearly half the goods value. Parcel refusals under DAP are expensive: you pay return shipping or abandonment, and you've lost the sale and the customer.

DDP isn't free either — carriers charge the seller for prepaying duties (UPS's duty-and-tax forwarding surcharge is $15/shipment; DHL's DTP billing service runs 2% of the fiscal charges, minimum $17) — but you can price a known $15–17 into your margin, while the buyer's DAP surprise is unpriceable. That judgment is a SellerSays rule based on the fee structures cited; weigh it against your margins.

When DAP is still reasonable

B2B buyers with import experience, or destinations where your carrier can't prepay duties. Note the EU changed in July 2026: even sub-€150 consignments now owe a €3-per-item duty, so IOSS alone no longer delivers a fully charge-free doorstep — decide consciously who eats that €3.

Common questions

Is DDP the same as IOSS?
No. IOSS is an EU VAT scheme for ≤€150 consignments; DDP is a delivery term covering duties and taxes generally. Since July 2026 even ≤€150 EU orders owe a €3-per-item duty, so IOSS covers the VAT side but no longer makes the whole delivery charge-free.

Official sources behind these numbers

  • Under DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) the seller is responsible for delivering the goods to the named place in the buyer's country, cleared for import, and pays all costs of bringing the goods to the destination — import duties and taxes included. business.gov.uk (UK Government) · verified 2026-07-21 · effective 2020-01-01
  • Under delivery terms other than DDP — DAP included — the buyer must pay all applicable tariffs and taxes when the goods arrive in the importing country, and import customs clearance is completed at the buyer's cost and risk. export.gov (International Trade Administration, U.S. Dept. of Commerce) · verified 2026-07-21 · effective 2020-01-01
  • UPS US customs brokerage Disbursement Fee: when UPS advances/pays duty and taxes on the customer's behalf on imports into the US, the fee is 2% of the amount paid or processed, minimum $17.00. UPS · verified 2026-07-22 · effective 2026-07-07
  • FedEx US Disbursement Fee (imports, expedited/express services): when FedEx advances duties, taxes and other regulatory charges to customs on the payer's behalf, the fee is 2.5% of Duty & Tax or minimum $17.50, whichever is greater. FedEx · verified 2026-07-22
  • DHL Express US Duty Tax Processing fee (receiver-side, DDU/DAP imports into the US): when DHL advances/processes import duties and taxes and invoices the receiver, the charge is 2% of fiscal charges with a minimum of $17.50 - the same rate for account holders (deferred payment) and non-account holders. DHL Express · verified 2026-07-22 · effective 2026-01-01
  • DHL Express Duty Tax Paid (DTP) billing service: when the shipper (or a third party outside the destination country) asks DHL to bill import duties, taxes and regulatory charges to a DHL account at origin or in a third country instead of the receiver, DHL assesses the duty/tax payer 2% of the fiscal charges advanced, with a minimum of $17.00 (US guide). DHL Express · verified 2026-07-22 · effective 2026-01-01
  • UPS Duty and Tax Forwarding surcharge: if duties and/or taxes are billed outside the destination country (e.g. seller/third party pays duties on a DDP-style billing option), UPS charges $15.00 per shipment. UPS · verified 2026-07-22 · effective 2026-07-07
  • USPS charges the US addressee a Customs Clearance and Delivery Fee of $9.35 per dutiable item on inbound international mail on which customs duty or Internal Revenue tax is collected at delivery (items bearing CBP mail entry Form 3419ALT), for all qualifying classes of inbound mail other than Inbound Letter Post letters and flats. USPS (Postal Explorer) · verified 2026-07-22 · effective 2026-07-12

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