Ensure every U.S.-bound shipment clears with duties paid through a Zonos Verified Account
As of August 29, 2025, a U.S. executive order requires duty to be paid on all shipments into the United States. As of July 24, 2026, the duty prepayment threshold for postal shipments has risen from $800 to $2,500 USD — you must prepay duties before your parcel crosses the border.
To support small businesses and merchants, Zonos partnered with Australia Post to provide Verified Accounts for their merchants.
When a Verified Account is/is not needed
A Verified Account is only needed if you want to ship packages under $2,500 USD to the U.S. AND you have a business account with Australia Post or you want to use our Quoter tool to get duty costs with Australia Post. If you are a casual shipper, you can use the retail counter for your U.S. shipments instead.
You also need one to ship Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) to Canada, the UK, or select EU countries.
Verified Accounts keep your shipments moving. Zonos collects the duties from you and remits them to the destination country on your behalf—along with the taxes on your non-U.S. destinations—so Australia Post can keep issuing your labels knowing those costs are covered.
To the U.S.
Zonos remits the duties directly to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), fulfilling the requirement for prepaid duties on postal shipments under $2,500 USD.
This allows Australia Post to continue issuing labels—knowing duties will be properly calculated, collected, and paid. Here's how it works:
Sign up for a Verified Account via the post referral link (we'll connect it to your post account automatically).
Optionally add duties to your pricing using free tools in Dashboard Lite to find out duty rates for your products.
Start shipping confidently with prepaid duty validation on every U.S.-bound parcel.
Zonos will bill you for duties and processing/clearance fees as shipments are processed by the post.
Supply the product data U.S. entry requires by syncing your catalog, answering the questions Zonos flags, and uploading supporting documents. If you build your Catalog with a CSV or the Catalog API, also include each product's SKU on every U.S.-bound shipment so Zonos can match it to your Catalog.
Beyond the U.S.
Your Verified Account is not limited to U.S. parcels. You can also use it to ship DDP—with duties and taxes paid—to Canada, the UK, and select EU countries.
What each destination requires is different. The UK has a rule of its own: tax on shipments valued under 135 GBP has to be remitted under a tax ID rather than collected from your customer on delivery, which is what your Verified Account does. Canada has no such requirement, so shipping DDP there is your choice—it just means your customer is not asked to pay anything on delivery. In the EU, requirements vary by country.
Duty prepayment is only part of what the U.S. now asks for. Certain products need extra information before they can enter the country: where the metal in a steel or aluminum item was made, the details a U.S. agency requires for a regulated product, and the paperwork behind a trade agreement claim.
Your Verified Account is where you supply that. Sync or upload your product catalog, and Zonos checks each product against U.S. entry requirements and flags the ones that need more information. Zonos Clarify works out what each flagged product has to provide and drafts the likely answer for you to review, and you can attach supporting documents such as certificates of origin to the products they cover. Zonos matches each item on your Australia Post shipments to your Catalog by SKU, so enter each product's SKU, exactly as it appears in your Catalog, every time you ship to the U.S.
These tools are included with your account at no extra cost. See Add required product data for how to work through them.
Verified accounts
Verified Accounts for Australia Post
Ensure every U.S.-bound shipment clears with duties paid through a Zonos Verified Account
As of August 29, 2025, a U.S. executive order requires duty to be paid on all shipments into the United States. As of July 24, 2026, the duty prepayment threshold for postal shipments has risen from $800 to $2,500 USD — you must prepay duties before your parcel crosses the border.
To support small businesses and merchants, Zonos partnered with Australia Post to provide Verified Accounts for their merchants.
A Verified Account is only needed if you want to ship packages under $2,500 USD to the U.S. AND you have a business account with Australia Post or you want to use our Quoter tool to get duty costs with Australia Post. If you are a casual shipper, you can use the retail counter for your U.S. shipments instead.
You also need one to ship Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) to Canada, the UK, or select EU countries.
What is a Verified Account?
Verified Accounts keep your shipments moving. Zonos collects the duties from you and remits them to the destination country on your behalf—along with the taxes on your non-U.S. destinations—so Australia Post can keep issuing your labels knowing those costs are covered.
To the U.S.
Zonos remits the duties directly to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), fulfilling the requirement for prepaid duties on postal shipments under $2,500 USD.
This allows Australia Post to continue issuing labels—knowing duties will be properly calculated, collected, and paid. Here's how it works:
Beyond the U.S.
Your Verified Account is not limited to U.S. parcels. You can also use it to ship DDP—with duties and taxes paid—to Canada, the UK, and select EU countries.
What each destination requires is different. The UK has a rule of its own: tax on shipments valued under 135 GBP has to be remitted under a tax ID rather than collected from your customer on delivery, which is what your Verified Account does. Canada has no such requirement, so shipping DDP there is your choice—it just means your customer is not asked to pay anything on delivery. In the EU, requirements vary by country.
See What you can do with your Verified Account for the current destination list and the value limits that apply.
Supplying product data for U.S. entry
Duty prepayment is only part of what the U.S. now asks for. Certain products need extra information before they can enter the country: where the metal in a steel or aluminum item was made, the details a U.S. agency requires for a regulated product, and the paperwork behind a trade agreement claim.
Your Verified Account is where you supply that. Sync or upload your product catalog, and Zonos checks each product against U.S. entry requirements and flags the ones that need more information. Zonos Clarify works out what each flagged product has to provide and drafts the likely answer for you to review, and you can attach supporting documents such as certificates of origin to the products they cover. Zonos matches each item on your Australia Post shipments to your Catalog by SKU, so enter each product's SKU, exactly as it appears in your Catalog, every time you ship to the U.S.
These tools are included with your account at no extra cost. See Add required product data for how to work through them.
Next steps
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