What’s your plan for the €3 fee on low-value parcels €150?

[apricot]

Hi,
I searched the forum but couldn’t find an answer. I was wondering if anyone has found a solution for the €3 charge on parcels under €150 (Parcels from UK to EU)

Are you planning to include this fee in the product price, collect it separately, or handle it another way?

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/...toms-duty-on-small-parcels-as-of-1-july-2026/

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I understand that retailers will be passing it on along with the fuel surcharge

If you keep absorbing costs you will need advice on how to register your business as a charity

 

[apricot]

I understand that retailers will be passing it on along with the fuel surcharge

If you keep absorbing costs you will need advice on how to register your business as a charity

)
Sad and true!

 

[Shipping Guru]

In my internationals department, we recommend to our customers to either change the shipping terms to DDP, or we reduce the shipping by 3 euro for low value shipments. There are several options but given DHL are pulling out of mail shipments to the EU because they cannot offer DDP, maybe its a good time to look at what others can do.

 

[JPMiddleton]

In my internationals department, we recommend to our customers to either change the shipping terms to DDP, or we reduce the shipping by 3 euro for low value shipments. There are several options but given DHL are pulling out of mail shipments to the EU because they cannot offer DDP, maybe its a good time to look at what others can do.

Shipping terms being DDP instead of DAP (with IOSS) doesn't avoid the €3 per line item though does it? My understanding from various sources is that it is €3 per HS code for every order under €150. IOSS or otherwise.

 

[Shipping Guru]

We dont ship IOSS (not big enough at the moment) but we do have plenty of customers that ship smaller value packages into the EU. But correct, IOSS does not get rid of the charge.

 

[JPMiddleton]

We dont ship IOSS (not big enough at the moment) but we do have plenty of customers that ship smaller value packages into the EU. But correct, IOSS does not get rid of the charge.

I actually meant the opposite. Perhaps I misred, but your message seemed to suggest DDP would mean avoiding the €3. Which I don't believe isthe case.

Regardless of whether you send IOSS, DAP with NO IOSS, or Duty pre-paid - the €3 applies to the best of my knowledge, but I will be happy to be proved wrong.

 

[DontAsk]

given DHL are pulling out of mail shipments to the EU because they cannot offer DDP,

It's a temporary suspension whilst they develop a solution and only applies to DHL/DetschePost Global Mail, not DHL as a whole.

 

[DontAsk]

Shipping terms being DDP instead of DAP (with IOSS) doesn't avoid the €3 per line item though does it?

Correct. DDP just means the sender pays.

My understanding from various sources is that it is €3 per HS code for every order under €150. IOSS or otherwise.

Correct. It's per line item or HS code, I'm not sure what it means if two distinct line items have the same HS code.

 

[JPMiddleton]

It's a temporary suspension whilst they develop a solution and only applies to DHL/DetschePost Global Mail, not DHL as a whole.

Correct. DHL Express won’t have any issues, it’s because Deutsche Post doesn’t have a duty prepaid service and never has. So I assume they are working to get it up and running, but the weird thing is we’ve been shipping IOSS for 3 years with Global Mail/Deutsche Post. So I don’t understand this reasoning.

 

[DontAsk]

Correct. DHL Express won’t have any issues, it’s because Deutsche Post doesn’t have a duty prepaid service and never has. So I assume they are working to get it up and running,

They are. DHL UK customers were invited to a webinar about this recently.

but the weird thing is we’ve been shipping IOSS for 3 years with Global Mail/Deutsche Post. So I don’t understand this reasoning.

I use Global Mail but not IOSS so the customer currently pays any fees, taxes and duties.

I think the problem is that their IT cannot yet cope with adding the fee to the total order. Their various websites (global mail, express, billing) are a bit klunky in my opinion.

 

[JPMiddleton]

They are. DHL UK customers were invited to a webinar about this recently.



I use Global Mail but not IOSS so the customer currently pays any fees, taxes and duties.

I think the problem is that their IT cannot yet cope with adding the fee to the total order. Their various websites (global mail, express, billing) are a bit klunky in my opinion.

We’ve never actually used any of their sites, they’re so bad. Only ever bothered with their APIs for direction integration.

 

[JPMiddleton]

This appears to be handled very well by RM but is currently confusing our account manager and everyone we've spoken to at DHL.

What they seem unable to understand, is that sending via IOSS is not a DDP service but DAP. They keep advising to send via DDP, if we do this then we're essentially paying EU vat twice. Once via IOSS and once to DHL via DDP invoice.

Meaning we either pay VAT twice, or the customer gets billed the €3 duties. Neither are good.

It amazes me how they don't seem to be able to understand this.

However RM are handling it really well. The IOSS service will collect the €3 duty fee only and not the VAT, meaning it's technically a part DDP service and is working nicely. Surprisingly enough!

 

[HFE Signs]

Unfortunately this has to be factored into the P&P cost where it applies.

 

[JPMiddleton]

Unfortunately this has to be factored into the P&P cost where it applies.

It’s far more complex than that, unfortunately.

 

[apricot]

In June I called Royal Mail to ask how the new €3 customs duty would be paid. I was told to wait until 1 July, as there would be an update to the system.

I waited. Then I had a call from my Royal Mail account manager on the 29th of June to remind that there will be EU charges applied starting from 1st of July, she just wanted to make aware of it. There was no information about how this payment will be paid.. I called on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of July, several times, trying to establish which code to use and how the duty gets paid. Every call gave me different information. Eventually we got it sorted.

Now the emails from customers have started. The post office is demanding payment on delivery.

- A French customer who placed the order on the 24th of June and item was dispatched on the 25th of June. She was asked to pay €17 on a €25 order. That is not the €3 duty — it's duty plus import VAT plus La Poste's handling fee. The VAT had already been collected and paid at checkout under IOSS, so it is being charged twice.
- A German customer was asked to pay €9 for order that was placed in June but arrived in July. I don't yet have the breakdown.

No one had any idea that custom fee should be paid before 1st of July. This is so annoying.

I am now charging delivery fee to collect the custom fee from the customers and my orders gone down rapidly as a result

it's all a big mess!

 

[LPB 123]

Unfortunately this has to be factored into the P&P cost where it applies.

Or collected at checkout. The problem with doing it as P&P is if you are sending different HS codes as it's 3 Euros per HS code, not per shipment.

As above about Royal Mail, working well so far but there is a handful of countries that are not available to offer DDP for the duty only on IOSS shipments yet.

 

[DontAsk]

Background:
Very small micro business.
Not an RM account holder (volumes too low).
Voluntarily VAT registered in the UK.
Has an EORI number that is hardly ever requested.
Not registered for IOSS.

To keep things simple I have always, since Brexit, sent items to the EU DDU via RM and more recently DHL Global Mail, always booking on-line. I've never had any complaints from customers about duty payments. B2C would be below the old de-minimis limit and B2B understood the need, and were happy, to pay.

DHL global Mail is suspended, as discussed above, and now I have discovered RM insist that I have to send everything DDP and pay ALL of the fees and VAT up front, an extra £100 in this case as it was a larger B2B order. There's no option in the on-line booking process to leave payment to the recipient. The customer was happy to pay an extra £17 for DHL Express instead, and pay the duty, etc., on delivery.

DDU IS still an option under the new fee regime, according to my research.

Can anyone tell me:

If I had sent via Royal Mail, what paperwork would I have received? Would that help the customer with the VAT return?

What would paperwork would the customer have received, if any, and how would they use it to prove payment of VAT for their VAT return?