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Removing the Customs Surprise From International Orders

Removing the Customs Surprise From International Orders

One of the most reliable ways to frustrate an international customer is letting them discover unexpected import taxes only after their package gets held up at customs — or worse, arrives with a surprise bill. Easyship's Taxes and Duties feature exists specifically to remove that surprise, calculating and displaying these costs before a shipment ever leaves the warehouse.

Coverage across 220+ destination countries

Rather than handling tax calculation for a limited set of major markets, Easyship automatically calculates applicable tariffs, taxes, and duties for more than 220 destinations worldwide — a genuinely global scope that matters for any merchant shipping beyond a handful of familiar markets, where import rules vary considerably from country to country.

Automatic calculation based on product category and HS code

Easyship determines applicable duties and taxes using a shipment's HS (Harmonised System) tariff code alongside the destination country and declared value — the same classification system customs authorities themselves use, meaning the calculated figures reflect genuine regulatory categorisation rather than a rough approximation.

Two distinct calculation methods, correctly applied per country

The platform correctly applies either CIF (Cost, Insurance, and Freight) or FOB (Free on Board) calculation methods depending on the specific destination country's customs rules — Canada, for example, calculates duties including shipping costs, while Australia calculates based on goods value alone. Getting this distinction right matters directly for accuracy, since using the wrong method produces a genuinely incorrect estimate.

Dynamic Duties and Taxes displayed at checkout

Beyond calculating costs internally, Easyship's Dynamic Duties and Taxes feature displays these charges directly on a merchant's checkout page — giving international customers full visibility into what they'll actually owe before completing a purchase, rather than discovering additional charges only after the order ships.

DDP prepayment as an option, not a requirement

For merchants wanting to simplify the customer experience further, Easyship supports prepaying duties and taxes through Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) services — meaning the customer never has to deal with a customs bill at all, with the cost instead built into the original purchase price.

A free calculator for quick, no-commitment estimates

Beyond the full platform integration, Easyship offers a free standalone tax and duty calculator — letting merchants or even individual shoppers get a quick estimate for a specific shipment without needing a full account or platform integration first.

No-code checkout integration across major platforms

The Import Duty Calculator integrates directly with Shopify, WooCommerce, Shopline, BigCommerce, and Magento without requiring custom development — making the feature genuinely accessible to merchants without dedicated technical resources to build a custom tax display solution from scratch.

At a glance

Who it suits

This feature suits international e-commerce merchants wanting to give customers full upfront visibility into import costs, reducing abandoned deliveries and surprise customs bills that damage the post-purchase experience. Merchants shipping purely domestically, with no international order volume, won't find this feature relevant, since it's specifically built around the complexities of cross-border tax and duty obligations. Explore Easyship Taxes and Duties — **

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