Plain-English guides on HS codes, country of origin, duty-paid checkout, and EU and UK customs changes.
An EU fiscal representative acts as your VAT presence in a member state: registering you, filing returns, and standing liable for the tax. When US Shopify brands actually need one, what the representative does day to day, and what the engagement typically costs.
A cross-border return is a second customs event. The paperwork for the return leg, when you can reclaim duty, and how to route returns so the customs bill does not eat the refund.
ICS2 is the EU pre-loading security filing. Carriers file it, but they file your data: incomplete descriptions, HS codes, and consignee details are why parcels get held.
The exact fields EU customs expects on the invoice, the mistakes that get parcels held, and why the paper and electronic copies must match.
EORI numbers confuse US sellers because the answer depends on how the goods enter the EU. Here is when you need one and when you do not.
When a shopper refuses duty charges at the door, the carrier holds the parcel, the merchant pays return shipping, and the customer usually never buys again.
The UK scrapped its low-value import VAT relief years ago, and the GBP 135 consignment rule decides who collects the tax. Here is how the rules land on a US seller.
A plain-English landed-cost formula for US Shopify brands shipping to EU customers after the July 2026 low-value duty change.
A practical SKU-level workflow for fixing HS classification and origin data before calculating EU and UK duties.
A practical comparison of delivered-duty-paid and duties-on-delivery checkout experiences for cross-border DTC orders.