Keep shipping to the U.S. and select EU destinations with Japan Post + Zonos

Starting October 1, 2026 (JST), you can ship duty-prepaid to:

• United States
• Select EU destinations: Denmark, France (including Monaco), Andorra, French overseas departments (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique), Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Slovakia, Italy, Finland, Luxembourg, Estonia, and Malta

No. IOSS only applies to EU shipments with goods valued at €150 or less. Above €150, whether a shipment can be sent duty-prepaid (DDP) depends on the destination country, and some countries also set a maximum goods value. See EU country readiness for each destination's rules.

If you have your own IOSS number, or you ship through a marketplace that has one, Zonos supports third-party (non-Zonos) IOSS numbers. You can pass your IOSS number through the Zonos API, or in Ship&co (coming soon). Third-party IOSS numbers aren't supported for labels printed in the Zonos Dashboard.

An IOSS number isn't required. Any EU shipment valued at €150 or less without a third-party IOSS number uses Zonos' IOSS number. If you use your own IOSS number, Zonos won't charge you the VAT, since you (or your marketplace) will be remitting it. If Zonos' IOSS number is used, Zonos charges you the VAT and remits it to the EU country.

If you have your own IOSS number but don't pass it, the shipment defaults to Zonos' IOSS number. Zonos charges you the VAT and remits it, and you (or your marketplace) will also remit VAT for that shipment, so you end up paying it twice. That's why, if you have your own IOSS number, you should always pass it.

• Shipments and label creation
• Manifests (consolidation groups)
• Bulk CSV order upload
• Item Quoter
• Invoices
• Settings (business information, billing, Later Pay Number, fulfillment centers, team members)

You can create and print Japan Post labels three ways, all available now:

• Your own shipping platform — Ship&co is supported today, with more platforms coming soon.
• Zonos Dashboard — upload orders via CSV, create labels in bulk or individually, attach labels to consolidation groups, and close and print manifests.
• Zonos API — build a custom integration with the Zonos Labels API to create, manage, and void labels programmatically.

No. Your Zonos Verified Account is free to use. You're billed only for duties and the postal clearance fee on each shipment, plus the taxes (VAT) on EU shipments that use Zonos' IOSS number.

There are no additional Japan Post fees from Zonos. Business customers are invoiced directly by Zonos for duties and the postal clearance fee. For EU shipments that use Zonos' IOSS number, the invoice also includes the taxes (VAT).

No. The U.S. duty prepayment requirement applies to postal shipments valued under $2,500 USD. U.S.-bound shipments over $2,500 USD follow standard customs entry procedures.

Gifts shipped to the U.S. valued over $100 USD are dutiable. Zonos calculates duties on the total gift value and bills accordingly.

Contact the Zonos support team at support@zonos.com.

For postal shipments into the U.S., free trade agreements are not applied during duty calculation, even though every item is assigned an HS code in the app.

Here's why: U.S. Customs does not currently require HS codes for postal shipments. Because HS codes aren't required, the operational infrastructure for postal clearance isn't set up to process FTA claims. Claiming an FTA benefit requires verified classification, certificates of origin, and a formal entry process that postal shipments don't go through. Without this operational infrastructure, FTA's cannot apply to postal shipments in practice.

Currently the only exemptions that can be applied to postal shipments (without additional infrastructure) are for "informational material". Zonos assigns an HS code to determine whether your item qualifies for this exemption, then calculates the duty if not.

This reflects how U.S. Customs currently processes postal shipments, not a limitation of the Zonos calculation.

Duties include both MFN (standard duty rates) and tariffs applied via executive action — a breakdown is available in our 2025 tariff guide. Since U.S. de minimis was removed, postal services collect Section 122 tariff rates (a flat 10% surcharge effective February 24, 2026) but not MFN rates.

Before July 24, 2026, U.S.-bound postal shipments were only subject to Section 122 tariff rates—they had a temporary advantage where other normal duties (MFN, Section 301, Section 232, etc.) did not apply. As of July 24, 2026, that advantage is gone, and Section 122 tariffs have expired. Postal shipments are now subject to normal duties (MFN, Section 301, Section 232, etc.), for the first time. In addition, a new Section 301 forced-labor tariff (10% or 12.5% by country of origin; some origins are capped net of the MFN rate — see the U.S. tariff tracker) now applies to postal shipments, with a clean cutover from the expired Section 122 tariff rate to the new Section 301 rate.

No. The postal clearance fee is applied per parcel, not per individual item.

Duties are calculated per item based on country of origin and aggregated for the shipment total.

According to CBP, U.S. returns are not duty-free and require duties to be paid.