Choosing an Incoterm: DAP or DDP

The Incoterm on a commercial invoice says who pays import VAT and duty at the destination. Borderdesk supports the two that online shops use.

DAP: Delivered at Place

The customer pays import VAT, duty and the carrier's handling fee when the parcel arrives. It's the default, and it's simple for you, but customers can be surprised by the charge and refuse the parcel.

With DAP, the customer pays no VAT on delivery when it was already collected at checkout:

• UK parcels of £135 or less, when you're registered for UK VAT.
• EU parcels up to €150 with your IOSS number.
• Norwegian items under NOK 3,000 with your VOEC number.

In those cases the customer usually pays nothing on delivery, except any duty that applies.

DDP: Delivered Duty Paid

You pay import VAT and duty, usually through your carrier, and the customer pays nothing on delivery. It's the best experience for customers, but you need an account with a carrier that offers DDP, and you have to price it in.

How Borderdesk chooses

• The default comes from Settings, under Document defaults.
• When Shopify collected duties at checkout, for example with Shopify Markets, the order is printed as DDP automatically.
• You can't set it per order yet. Change the default before printing if one order needs the other.

The Incoterm is printed with the destination city, for example "DAP London".