Learn how to interpret and generate UPS billing codes, and where to find them on your shipping label.
This document will explain the different billing options available when creating a UPS label for your cross-border shipment.
When you print your UPS international shipping label, there will be a billing code on it to show the billing option that applies to that shipment. The billing code explains who is responsible for the payment of shipping charges, duties, and taxes for that order. The table below explains each billing code option used by UPS, along with an explanation of how it works in general, and in relation to Zonos.
| Billing code | Description | Additional notes/Zonos examples |
|---|---|---|
| P/P TPR(Pre-paid/Third party) | The shipper (online retailer) pays the shipping charges and a third party (like Zonos) pays the duties and taxes. | A “Duties & Tax Forwarding Surcharge” is applied whenever the shipper requests that the duties & taxes be billed to themselves or a third party, regardless of geolocation. The third party’s UPS account number is required. UPS Ground Labels will not reflect this billing option. |
| F/D(Free Domicile) | The shipper collects and pays the duties and taxes on their own.(DDP shipment) | Eg. The online retailer uses Zonos Landed Cost calculator to calculate duties and taxes but doesn’t pre-collect them. |
| P/P(Pre-paid) | The shipper pays the shipping costs and the receiver pays the duties and taxes.(DDU shipment) | There will be instructions for the carrier to collect payment of duties and taxes from the receiver upon delivery (COD).Eg. The online retailer uses Zonos Landed Cost calculator to calculate landed cost, but still ships without prepaying or precollecting duties or taxes |
| F/C(Freight Collect) | The receiver pays all of the charges.(DDU shipment) | Eg. The online retailer uses Zonos Landed Cost calculator but still sends the shipment DDU. This is rare because the online retailer would have to require the consumer to enter their carrier account number (if they have one), which seldom happens. |
| SDV(Split Duty and VAT) | The online retailer bills freight and duty to one party and the tax/VAT to another. | Eg. The online retailer uses our Landed Cost calculator but bills duty and freight to one party and tax to another party on their own. This is the rarest option. |
To show how these billing codes look on a shipping label, here’s an F/D (Free Domicile) example:
Selecting billing options
When generating a shipping label, depending on the software you’re using, selecting one of the above options will require you to also select who is collecting the freight, duties, and taxes. Here are some examples from UPS’s WorldShip software and Zonos Dashboard.
WorldShip
F/D (Free domicile)
P/P (Prepaid)
P/P TPR (shipper pays the shipping charges and a third party pays the duties and taxes.)
F/C (Freight collect)
SDV (Split duty and VAT) - Online retailers bill freight and duty to one party and the tax/VAT to another.
Zonos Dashboard
For online retailers generating shipping labels via Zonos Dashboard...
Important Notes
- UPS defaults to billing the shipping charges to the shipper’s account number and billing the duties and taxes to the receiver if no option is selected.
- Not all billing options are available for all countries.
Interpreting UPS shipping label billing codes