How you collect duties at origin
You're responsible for collecting these duties from your shippers, but you get to choose how. You can have Zonos handle the collection for you, manage it on your own, or offer both options. Each approach gives you a different balance of control and financial risk:
Don't want to collect duties at origin? Zonos can do it on your behalf.
Snapshot
Overview
By moving the burden of duty collection to Zonos, you also move the majority of the financial risk of duty collection away from you. We'll handle collecting duties from your shippers and individuals and work with you to ensure no packages are sent without payment of duties. Now you can solely focus on ensuring each package has prepaid duties before acceptance into your network.
How it works
- One-time setup: Set up a payment account with Zonos.
- Shippers must prepay duties before bringing the package to your post office. Zonos has multiple options that your shippers can use to prepay duties. See section below regarding solutions.
- When your shipper drops their package off at the post office, confirm that duties have been prepaid and customs information is complete.
- If duties have not been prepaid, direct your shipper to prepay duties (see section below regarding duty collection solutions). Inform them that this must be done before you can accept the package.
- With confirmation that duties have been prepaid, accept the package.
Quick, flexible solutions for posts
Zonos has flexible options to collect duties before export and to quickly comply with new item data requirements. Whether you need a solution that takes care of it all, or one that slides into your existing systems to fill in the gaps, Zonos has you covered with multiple options:
Zonos Prepay app
No code required, made for individuals
Zonos invoicing
Zonos invoices your businesses for duties
Zonos Collect
Collect duty payments from recipients
01
Zonos Prepay app
Perfect for retail customers at home or at the postal counter
How it works
- Shippers download the Zonos Prepay app (available on iOS and Android)
- They snap a photo of the items they are shipping (at home or at the post office)
- Zonos' patent-pending AI tools automatically suggest customs details:
- Auto-generated customs descriptions
- Suggested country of origin (manufacture)
- Auto-assigned 10-digit HTS code
- The app will calculate duties and tariffs due and prompt payment
- Collects payment in local currency via local payment methods
- Pay in app or send a payment request to recipient (via Zonos Collect)
Why choose this solution:
02
Zonos invoicing
Perfect for high volume shippers
How it works
- Your high volume shippers can create a business account with Zonos.
- Those businesses can ship their packages as normal through your post. You do not need to be involved in the duty collection; simply confirm the business has a Zonos account and you will be clear to accept their packages.
- Zonos invoices each business for duties on their shipments. Invoices are sent periodically for all of the business' shipments cleared during that timeframe.
- Zonos pays these duties on behalf of the business.
Need data, too? Automated data is also available via Zonos Classify (AI-powered HS codes, detailed customs descriptions, and suggested country of origin) and Zonos Landed Cost (duty and tariff calculations).
Why choose this solution:
03
Zonos Collect
Send payment requests to package recipients across the world. We built a standalone payment collection system so you don't have to.
Why choose this solution:
Compare Zonos solutions
| Zonos Duty Pay app | Zonos invoicing | Zonos Collect | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No code required, ready in minutes | |||
| Suitable for low volume shippers (individuals at retail locations) | |||
| Suitable for high volume shippers (businesses) | |||
| Saves time with AI item identification and suggested customs data | |||
| Collects duty payment | |||
| Builds your own brand reputation | if white-labeled | ||
| Available in 50+ languages |
Posts are now financially liable for U.S. duties—whether or not you collect them
Starting August 29th, the new U.S. policy shifts the financial responsibility for duties away from the U.S. recipient. Since we have seen (when de minimis was removed for Chinese-made goods) that transportation carriers are unwilling to collect and remit duties, the financial responsibility shifts to you, the foreign post, if you want to continue shipping to the U.S.
This means you will need to work with a certified third-party to collect and remit duties. Ask us how Zonos can help with duty calculation, collection, and remittance on your behalf, allowing you to continue shipping U.S. packages.
What felt like panic now has a plan
Avoid chaos. Ensure compliance. Continue growing.
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99+% accurate—Yes, you read that right
By implementing our country-specific HS codes via Classify alongside AI-generated customs descriptors, the customs reclassification rate is below 1% (p < 0.01). This results in an accuracy exceeding 99% across all international shipments.
Regular maintenance includes:
Classification fidelity directly correlates with the precision, granularity, and specificity of input descriptors.
Posts must now collect U.S. duties before shipping—Zonos makes it easy.
Starting August 29th, collecting duties during delivery (DDU) is no longer an option for postal shipments to the U.S. At the same time, duty-free treatment ends (duties due on everything). This means that if you want to ship any packages to the U.S. after August 29th, you will have to facilitate paying duties to CBP on all U.S. shipments.
Zonos keeps your operations running smoothly by collecting and remitting duty for you, with solutions that can be operational in your flows before the 30-day deadline.
Talk with us