How the landed cost works
This is Forto's core: quoting the true cost of crossing a border — duty, import tax, and fees — inside your checkout, collecting it with the order, and making sure nothing is owed at the door. Here's exactly what happens, rule by rule.
DDP vs DAP, in one paragraph
DDP (Delivered Duty Paid): your customer pays duties and taxes at checkout as part of one total; the parcel clears customs prepaid; nothing is collected on delivery. DAP (Delivered At Place): the checkout shows goods + shipping only; the destination country bills your customer — often with a carrier “disbursement fee” on top — before handing over the parcel. DDP converts better and generates fewer support tickets; DAP is simpler and is what the free plan ships. Both are always available on Growth and up, per your settings.
What’s in the quote
When a customer checks out on a DDP plan, Forto computes the landed cost live:
- ·Duty — calculated on the destination’s basis (typically goods + freight), at the rate for the product’s HS classification.
- ·Import tax / VAT / GST — on the destination’s basis, typically goods + freight + duty.
- ·Forto’s fee — always a separate line in your reporting, never presented to your customer as a government charge.
The total is collected with the order and held in your wallet until the shipment settles.
The thresholds, per destination
Most countries don’t charge duty on everything — they have thresholds and special regimes, and these change. Forto applies them as effective-dated rules, tracked weekly and reviewed by a person before they change what your customers pay:
| Destination | Rule Forto applies |
|---|---|
| United States | De-minimis suspended — duty applies from the first cent. This is what makes prepaid DDP into the US worth doing. |
| European Union | €3 per-item duty on consignments up to €150 arriving from outside the EU (since 1 Jul 2026) — separate from VAT. Above €150: normal tariff rates. |
| United Kingdom | Under £135 consignment value: VAT collected at checkout, no duty. Over £135: duty and import VAT at the border. |
| Norway | VOEC — VAT collected at checkout up to NOK 3,000 per consignment; no duty below it. |
| Australia | Under A$1,000: GST only, collected at checkout under the simplified regime. No duty. |
| Switzerland | Duty assessed by weight, not value — light parcels typically owe none. VAT applies. |
| Intra-EU | No customs at all. B2C VAT is charged at the destination rate under the One-Stop-Shop, with the €10,000 threshold flip handled. |
IOSS and OSS — VAT filed for you
IOSS (imports into the EU)
On Growth and up, EU VAT on consignments up to €150 is collected at your checkout and filed monthly under Forto’s IOSS registration, with Forto acting as intermediary. You never register for EU VAT yourself for these sales. The VAT your customers pay is held in a segregated account until it’s remitted to the tax authority — never mixed with operating cash.
Union OSS (selling within the EU)
Intra-EU B2C orders route through the One-Stop-Shop logic: below the EU-wide €10,000 annual threshold you charge origin-country VAT, above it destination-country VAT — the flip is handled automatically.
HS classification, with a human in the loop
Every product you sync is classified automatically to an HS code — that code drives the duty rate. Classification confidence is measured honestly: anything the system isn’t sure about stops for human review before it can price a cart. Reviewed codes are cached per SKU, and you can inspect and override them in Settings → HS code review.
The duty quote markup (optional)
In Settings → DDP there’s an optional markup lever that adds a percentage on top of duty quotes — a pricing tool, off by default. You don’t need it for safety: estimate variance is handled by Forto’s own reserve mechanics.
Who is the importer of record?
What Forto deliberately doesn’t do: US sales tax
US sales tax (the state-level tax on domestic-style sales) is Shopify Tax’s job, and Forto never collects it. What Forto does instead: watches your order flow against every state’s economic-nexus thresholds and flags the month you cross one, with guided registration from there.